Schwarzwald Chronicles (Satis Shroff)

FREIBURG: History of Migration from 1500 till Today (Satis Shroff)

2014-12-19T00:12:00.001-08:00

YESTERDAY, December 18,2014, I was invited to a book introduction and reception on the occasion of the International Day of Migration at the Winterer Foyer of Freiburg's city theatre. The mayor for cultural affairs Ulrich von Kirchbach, was conspicuous by his absence because he had to attend another event.

The well-researched book in question bore the title 'Migration in Freiburg im Breisgau - its history from 1500 till today,' and the editors were Ulrich Ecker (City Archive) and Prof. Dr. Nausikaa Schrilla (University of Applied Sciences). The musical accompaniment was provided by the Heim und Flucht Orchestra conducted by Ro Kuijpers.

We all know that migration is not a new contemporary phenomenon and represents an essential factor for urban development, and in this context migrants (males and females) have left and still leave their impressions in the cultural heritage of the city they live in.

The society to which the migrants came was formed, challenged, emphasized and, most of all, enhanced and enriched by the new citizens. This is also the reason why the Cultural Department devotes its time and resources to this long-time research project, which was initiated in 2011 under the aegis of the Community Council of Freiburg City. The city archive was obliged to carry out a research on the migration story, as part of the history of the city. The result is a standard work written by 26 authors, among them historians, social scientists, ethnologists, social workers and the scientific archivists of this city who have compiled these fascinating stories from 1500 till the present.

The documents are readable also for the layman and is written in an interesting way, which was not visible till now---as far as research documents written by scientists are concerned. The publication also depicts the people from Europe and other countries of the world who made their way to this city in Baden-Württemberg, and have left lasting impressions in the community as its new citizens, have brought new perspectives and thereby enriched the culture of Freiburg. Without the contributions of these people, Freiburg wouldn't be as rich and diverse as today.

The book has 304 pages and 113 images, and bears the ISBN 978-3-923272-39-6 and costs 24,50 euros and is published by Stadt Archiv Freiburg, Grünwälderstrasse 15, D-79098 Freiburg, Germany.

Jean Aymonat immigrated to Freiburg in 1596 from Savoyen, Jerome Ferrand came in 1698 from Languedoc, Alberto Lurati came in 1872 from Italy.

Joseph Bednaz was brought against his will to Freiburg from Poland in 1941, and remained here after the World War II.
Agostinho Dias came all the way from Portugal with his parents who were workers in the Dreisam Valley in the year 1979. Jasmina Prpic fled to Freiburg during the war in Bosnia-Herzegowina in 1992.

The above-mentioned are only six out of many migrants who have come to Freiburg in the course of time in the last 500 years, established themselves here and brought their families or created new families here. The imprint of their influence is evident in the cultural heritage of the city and it was their integration in the teutonic society that was a matter of challenge and choices, that taxed the society, shaped it, moulded it and even enriched it in the process.

The book isn't about the chronology of events but about themes such as the role of religion in the migratory process, and the presence and echo and how it was reflected upon by the German media, the participation in the society, language learning, pastime schedules and social life of the immigrants. It might be noted that the different migrant groups that have settled down in Freiburg in the course of time not only worked here and sent their children to school but also lived their lives and helped to bring about changes in Freiburg. The numerous portraits of the new immigrants document the individual motives of migration, and the success achieved as well as goals not attained and resulting defeat.

The book handled the theme migration in its historical and local perspectives. From this a few deductions can be made regarding migration, which are firstly not new phenomena, secondly they're just as normal as migration itself, which has always taken place in in history, and thirdly we cannot imagine Freiburg without migration.

Freiburg is a lovely, attractive city and it is the migratory trend that makes it so attractive. The book analyses the past and the present, as well as the future and comes to the conclusion that migration will further strengthen and it will remain an open and diverse Black Forest metropolis, as we Freiburger are wont to say. As Prof. Schirilla mentioned in her talk about the book:'There are obviously gaps in the book. Die Lückenhaftigkeit des Buches sind nicht vermeidbar' but with time even these gaps are expected to be closed after the adage: writing is re-writing.

(Svetlana Boltovskaja, Satis Shroff & a friend from Poland)

Of the 170 languages spoken by the migrants of Freiburg, only a small percentage has been represented, and it is hoped that this publication will lead to other ambitious publications as a series for the City Archive. The book does mirror the migrants and what they have experienced in the Occident. Through the contributions of the new citizens the Abendland has grown and become prosperous and can only be destroyed through its own doings, according to Nausikaa Schirilla.

I'd like to mention a forthcoming book by Svetlana Boltovskaja, a young, bespectacled, blonde I met and talked with at the book event. The title is long, as most academic works show: 'Educational migrants from the sub-Saharan Africa in Moscow and St. Petersberg: self and alien portraits.' ISBN 978-386226-256-4, price 28,80 euros, www.centaurus-verlag.de. I told Svetlana that during my college days in Kathmandu (Nepal) in the late seventies there were scholarships available for Nepalese and Indian students from the Lumumba-Friendship-University and Moscow University. The Soviet Union educated a lot of young people from the southern hemisphere (developing countries). Hundreds of Africans did their higher education in the old Soviet Union. Today, we find a rather small, active African community the nucleus of which consists of the former educational migrants.
Svetlana Boltovskaja's interdisciplinary study is an elaboration on the theme of 'intercultural Black Studies of Russia.' She has worked on the history of educational migration from the sub-Saharan Africa and has focused on the post-Soviet-period during which economic and societal-political transformations took place in Russia and in the African states. She works as a journalist, translator and as a museum-expert. She did her PhD in ethnology in Freiburg and coordinates different projects in the intercultural sector.

MIGRATION STORY IN FREIBURG (Satis Shroff)

2014-11-26T02:08:00.000-08:00

MIGRATION STORY IN FREIBURG (Satis Shroff)

MIGRATION is not a new phenomenon of the present day and is an important factor in urban development. The cultural heritage of the city is shaped by the migrants. The society in which they make their presence felt leads to a shaping, challenging, taxing and most of all adds to the enrichment of the society.

To this effect, the City Archieve has been working on a long-time research project which has assigned historians, social scientists and expert journalists in the past years to raise new questions about the history of the city.

The result of the intensive research is now in print and bears the title 'Migration in Freiburg/Breisgau—its Story from 1500 till the Present' and the book has 47 contributions by 26 authors involving numerous, diverse facettes and illustrations.

The chronological content throws light on themes such as the role of religion in migration, the presence and echo it found in the media, participation, language competence, freetime activities and social lives of the migrants.

The book, compiled by Ulrich Ecker and Nausikaa Schrilla, has been published by the City of Freiburg and has 304 pages, the City Archive is the publisher.

In order to accompany the book project, a series of talks has been arranged. The book presentation is on the International Day of Migrants on Thursday, December 18, 2014 at 5:30 pm at the Winterer-Foyer, Theatre Freiburg, Bertold Strasse 46, 79098 Freiburg.

The guests will be greeted by Ulrich von Kirchbach (Mayor for Culture, Integration & Senior Citizens), Meral Gründer (Migrant Counsel), Barbara Mundel (TheatreStadt Freiburg). Musical accompaniment by Heim & Flucht Orchestra Theatre Freiburg. And the evening will end with snacks & drinks.

Commentary: President Obama: WE WERE ONCE STRANGERS TOO (Satis Shroff)

2014-11-23T03:40:00.000-08:00

Subtitle: President Obama, the Lone Ranger (Satis Shroff)

IT is heartening to note that President Obama has decided to reform the immigration system, in the manner of the Lone Ranger, with his second immigration executive order. He'd started the ball rolling for young immigrants in 2012. The current step will prevent the deportation of five million immigrants. Out of the eleven million people who have sought refuge in the USA the fate of six million is still pending.

President Obama had to act because the immigration reform was blocked in the Congress again by the Republican majority. In a salami-strategy those who will be deported are: people suspected of terror activities, aggressive and brutal criminals, members of gangs and people who've crossed the border recently. It might be noted that 39 such executive orders were put into force by eleven presidents in the past after the immigration law was introduced in 1952.

President Obama's measures are of a temporary character and a sustainable solution of the immigration problem can only be resolved through the Congress, that is, the US senate and the House of Representatives. In case President Obama loses the next elections, the Republicans can topple the presidential executive orders. And thereby hangs a tale.

President Obama's solo performance is regarded by Republicans like Mitch McConnell as a massive provocation, and the Tea Party is understandably getting louder because for them it's a constitutional crisis.

The Lone Ranger has ridden ahead with the promise of better politics, and it was the recent loss in Congress that gave him the impetus. President Obama is an intellectual and not a hot-head like Bush. The immigration system is kaputt and it's no secret. Remarkably enough, nothing has been done since decades till now, till President Obama took the initiative in an it's-now-or-never manner. In this process, he's obviously using the presidential ace by coming up with a three-pronged programme with added protection of the south border, which the opposition has all the while been trying to enforce, in these insecure times, especially after 9/11. Like in Canada, Australia, Britain and Germany highly qualified professionals and rich investors will have it good if they want to stay on in the country, a step that is greeted heartily by CEOs and SEOs. In the end, President Obama admits that it's impossible to to trace millions of people and send them back where they came from. 80 per cent of the really really criminal refugees have been deported but the security resources have other priorities.

It's not up-keeping high American values and norms when families are separated by force. If the person didn't commit criminal deeds outside the US border, they should be allowed to legalize their status under certain conditions. This phenomenon of immigrants san papiere is universal and the people exist in many countries as shadows. Or they have to, at least, be in the USA since three years and possess children that are US citizens or have a stay permit.

Immigrants are expected to register, have their records checked and okayed and are obliged to give their consent to pay taxes without social assistance from the state organisations. Young foreigners will be subject to an extended existing law, but their parents won't enjoy the same privileges.

Some come to realise their American Dream in the USA, some because they're persecuted in their heimat or because there's a war going on, and there are those who wish to earn more. Even though there are laws and impediments a good many people take the risk. According to the UNO in 2013 there are 232 million migrants in the world. And two million families have been separated under President Obama's government, which shows that the President has followed a policy of appeasement towards the opposition, and at the same time a policy of containment.Immigration is a touchy theme when the economy of a nation isn't very healthy, as we have seen during the Great Depression, and the recent financial crisis.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/11/20/we-were-strangers-once-too-president-announces-new-steps-immigratio

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration

Singing Kindergarten & Kappeler Men's Choir (Satis Shroff)

2014-11-22T07:20:00.000-08:00

Kappel Singt: Singender Kindergarten und Männergesangverein

IN Kappel besteht eine Verbindung zwischen dem Männergesangverein und dem örtlichen Kindergarten St. Barbara unter der Leitung von Frau Ursula Allgeier. Es ist eine richtige Patenschaft, Freundschaft und Kooperation entstanden. In einer Verstaltung im Kappler Gemeindeheim zum Martinimarkt in dem der MGV-Kappel und die Kinder von St. Barbara gemeinsam Lieder sangen, hat Frau Roswitha Panknin, stellvertretend für den Deutschen Chorverband, eine Felix-Urkunde und den Jahresbutton zum Aufkleben auf das Felix-Schild an Frau Allgeier überreicht.

Die Felix-Plakette ist eine Auszeichnung für einen singenden Kindergarten und wird vom Deutschen Chorverband verliehen. Frau Panknin (Breisgauer Sängerbund) sagte, 'Die Kindergarten kann sich nach Ablauf der drei jährigen Gültigkeit dieser aktuellen Felix-Auszeichnung um die neue Plakete, „Die Carusos“ bewerben.

„Ich singe gerne – und ich kann es auch!“ ist das Ziel der bundesweiten Initiativ. „Die Carusos,“ das heißt: Jedem Kind seine Stimme. Die Bedeutung eines qualifizierten musikalischen Angebots im Kindergarten und musikalischer Vorschulbildung wächst. Die Schulen haben auch ein Interesse daran, dass die Begegnung mit Musik nicht erst im Klassenzimmer stattfindet. Früh übt sich: Singen tun wir alle in der Krabbelstube und wir können es bis ins hohe Alter fortführen (siehe MGV-Kappel!).

Was sind the Voraussetzungen und wer kann eine Carusos Fachberaterin werden? Nun, es wird verlangt, dass die Person eine musikalische Bilding hat, pädagogisches Engagement zeigt und ausgeprägt Kontaktfreudig ist. Die spezifische Carusos Fachberaterin muss durch eine Prüfung eine Qualifizierung nachweisen und wird bei bestehen mit einem Zeugnis beglaubigt.

Der Gesangsverein Kappel-Ebnet (1910) hat schon die Zelter Plakette 2011 vom Deutschen Chorverband erhalten. Nächstes Jahr ist der Männergesangverein-Kappel 95 Jahre alt. Auch Männer freuen sich auf Auszeichnungen.

Die Kinder sollen tägliches singen üben in Kindergerechter hohen Tonlage. Die Liederauswahl soll vielfältig und altersgemäß sein. Was mich persönlich sehr erfreut hat, war die Integration von Liedern aus anderen Kulturen, vor allem soll sich der demographische Wandel in Deutschland in der Musik bemerkbar machen, denn das gehört zum Alltag. Man hört Lang Lang so gerne im Fernsehen. Ich bin ganz Froh, dass wir immer wieder Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund und aus außereuropäischen Traditionen kommen. Ich komme ursprunglich aus Nepal, Fatao aus Togo, Charles aus Kamerun und wir haben auch Sänger aus der Mongolei. Im Kindergarten ist es auch nicht viel anders. Es ist eine wunderschöne Bereicherung für uns alle.

Trotz Proteste über sogenannte ausländische Lieder unter den betagten MGV Mitgliedern, haben wir die Sänger dazu motiviert russische, afrikanische, amerikanische, irische, kroatische, deutsche, lateinische Lieder zu singen. Wenn die Kinder und die Erwachsenen Männer zusammen auf der Bühne stehen, nach gemeinsamen Proben, und gemeinsamen singen sind sie doch alle glücklich.

Seit einigen Jahren versucht der MGV die Schauinslandschule ebenfalls für die Felix- Plakette und Carusos und anschließend eine Musikpatenschaft zu begründen wie mit unserem Kappler Kindergarten. Vielleicht wäre es in Naher Zukunft möglich ein jährliches Konzert mit den kleinen (Kindergarten) und den großen (MGV, Schule) Sängern und Sängerinnen zu veranstalten mit tierisch guten Lieder. Eine gemeinsame rAuftritt wäre doch möglich mit der Unterstützung vom Musikverein-Kapel. All das braucht viel Einsatz aber es bereitet uns Kapplern auch viel Freude.

---Satis Shroff

www.mgv-kappel.de

VOLKSTRAUERTAG: The Fallen, Dead & Lampedusa Refugees (Satis Shroff)

2014-11-16T13:26:00.000-08:00

THE FALLEN, DEAD AND LAMPEDUSA REFUGEES (Satis Shroff)

NOVEMBER is the month of remembering the fallen soldiers and the deceased. The British Prime Minister David Cameron was depicted in a press-photo laying a plastic flower among a sea of scarlet tulips. It was in memory of the 17 million dead of the World War I. That's the reason why 888246 ceramic tulips were planted around the Tower of London, with a traditionally clad Beef-Eater sentinal in the centre of the tulip field, for every tulip stands for a dead soldier of the British Armed Forces and the Armies of the British Colony (Africans, Chinese, Indians and Nepalese Gurkhas).

Today we were gathered at the War Memorial in a hamlet called Kappel, which belongs to Freiburg, for it's Volkstrauertag, the day the people of Germany think and pray for the sons of Kappel (and other hamlets, town and cities) who fell in the two Great Wars. The World War I was fought 100 years ago. A well-documented war in which people had no idea what they'd experience and how violent and gruesome it would be with mustard gas in the trenches. It wasn't a cricket match and a good many didn't return for Christmas to their homes.When the wind blew in the wrong direction the wrong armymen became the victims.

Erich Maria Remarques' novel 'Im Westen nichts Neues' is still regarded as the most important anti-war novel of the World War I. A lecture has been organised by the Joseph-Wirth Stiftung together with Freiburg City, the Goethe Institute and the French Cultural Centre. The theme of the lecture is 'Finally the Truth about the War.' Remarques relates in his novel about his own war-experiences with reports of other wounded solciers depicting the nightmare of the battle in the trenches of the Western Front.

It must be mentioned that this book, which was filmed in 1930, was forbidden by the national Socialists in Germany after they came to power.

The people in Europe and all over the globalised world are well-informed about the wars in the Near East, in Syrian and Iraq, as well as in the Ukraine, where the pro-Russian separatists are being assisted by Putin's Russia. Peace has become so fragile in a world where geopolitical and religious fanatism are showing their ugly heads. In the case of the countries attacked by the Islamic States, humanitarian help alone does not suffice, as our German President Gauck has often emphasised.

On the other side, the skirmishes between the Nato and Russia have been taking a alarming form of late. Nato military jets have carried out sorties against Russian warplanes over 100 times in 2014, three times as much as last year. There were 40 touch-and-go situations with the Russians which could have got out of control, according to the European Leadership Network based in London. The tension between Russia and the Nato has increased since the annexation of the Okranian Crimea by Moscow in March, 2014.

The Quiet Catastrophe: Meanwhile, the flow of refugees to Italy, on their way to friendly European countries is dramatically increasing. In his blog 'Fortress Europe' the Italian journalist Gabriele del Grande writes about people who have tried to reach Europe and are either missing or have died. Since 1988, 18,673 people have died in their endevour to gain freedom in Europe. 2011 was the saddest year when 2,352 humans from various nations died or were missing on their way to Lampedusa, which has become the outer border of the European Union.

Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea, has 5,000 inhabitants engaged in fishing and tourism. In the past years, an increasing number of refugees from Africa were stranded with the hope of acquiring asylum in Europe. They reached Lampedusa in rickety boats but in Lampedusa they were (and still are) greeted by a reception committee of 500 Italian policemen. The Carabinieri drive with blue-lights and bring the refugees to a crude, make-shift refugee camp.

The Schengener Agreement proclaims that a non-EU refugee can settle down in Europe only when he or she has a professional qualification which is deemed useful to an EU country or when he or she's politically persecuted. But can you really prove a persecution? If your life is in danger, why, you run away if you can. A lot of East Germany did it during the socialism rule under Eric Honnecker. They were ingenuous and crossed the GDR-FRG border by secretly digging tunnels, using balloons and even small, self-made aircraft or swam across the border.

It might be noted that after the Holocaust in which genocide was committed by the National Socialists in Germany and its conquered territories, the United nations proclaimed in 1951 the Geneva Refugee Convention, according to which a refugee is defined as a person who is persecuted for his or her political beliefs, nationality, race or religion. Furthermore, in the Treaty of Dublin, which was signed by the EU countries, as well as non-EU states like Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, it was declared that a state has to consider the asylum application in which the refugee first enters or disembarks. This was a clever decision because only a low number of refugees come by plane to Paris (France) or Berlin (Germany). The consequence and the problem was thus ironically passed on to the Mediterranean stated like Spain, Italy and Greece.And thereby hangs a tale.

Moreover, Schengen and Dublin are known for their data-banks. The Schengen Information System (SIS) stores every data of persons who have been banned to travel in the Schengen signatory countries for the main reason that they came without visa. On the other hand, the databank Eurodac stores the fingerprints of all persons who have illegally entered the member states or who have crossed the outer border of an EU member state. This ensures that asylum can't be sought and granted in other EU countries and to thwart any attempt to seek asylum in the country. Nevertheless, there are cases of people who try again and again via dangerous paths to gain asylum in the well-guarded Fortress Europe.

The European border is big biz for Frontex which makes risk-analyses and recommends the European states to send personel, logistics to places where the most refugees are to be found who attempt to get to EU countries. Border observation and control mean a great deal of money and involves observation cameras, infrared cameras and satellites. All these costs the European Union 110 million euros, and there's even an European Day for Border Guards. The press isn't invited to this exclusive event because it's a pow-wow of border guards, security firms and the armaments industry.

This way, refugees become roofless, experience poverty and get provoked and attacked verbally, psychologically, and physically with the passage of time, especially whenever there's an economic crisis in a good many European countries. In Germany the refugees have become the targets of soccer hooligans and the neonazis, a volatile combination, which needs to be curbed by Chancellor Merkel and her government.

Meanwhile, Green City Freiburg remembers the bombing of th Black Forest city during the First and the Second World Wars. Freiburg was bombed on November 27, 1944 and 3000 people died and a great part of the town was destroyed by Allied bombs (not to speak of the British dead caused by the Luftwaffe). 'Dem Vergessen entreissen' is the name of a book published jointly by Freiburg City, the Landesverein 'Badische Heimat' and Romberg verlag and deals with the victims of the memories of time-witnesses, who lived or still live, in Freiburg. A Freiburger historian named Carola Schark has gathered the names of many victims and written their stories of civil courage in the face of emergency. There's also mention of Freiburg's role during the Third Reich and about the protective measures around Freiburg's cathedral during the war.

On November 9, 2014 Freiburg also remembered the destruction of its Jewish Synagogue by the Nazis. It is heartening to note that the Society for Christian-Jewish Partnership, as well as Freiburg City and other organisations held a memorial event at the place where the olde synagogue stood. You could even take part in a guided-tour with the title 'The Jew.' Additionally, a portrait of Gertrude Luckner painted by Miron Lvov-Brodsky was also revealed, followed by a talk on Freiburg's Stolperstein by Ms. Marlies Meckel. If you come to this Schwarzwald metropolis you'll come across a lot of bronze cobbled stones with names of the Jews engraved on them. These were the Jews who once lived in Freiburg but who were murdered in the concentration camps through the use of Zyklon B, a nerve-gas, used by the Nazis. A ghastly reminder of a tragic and sad chapter in the history of Germany and this city.

Abiturlektur: HALF BROKE HORSES (Satis Shroff)

2014-11-04T02:57:00.002-08:00

Savvy Jeannette Walls? (Satis Shroff)
She's the author of 'Dish: The Inside Story of the World of Gossip,' 'The Glass Castle': A Memoir, 'Half Broke Horses' and 'The Silver Star.' She has a fascinating story to tell of a dysfunctional family, whereby the parents (Rex and Rosemary) follow a bohemian lifestyle and a lassez faire course in the education of the children. The story of the children is moving and shows the poverty, misery and longing for a better life.The family moves 27 times to avoid creditors. Jeannette manages to graduate from High School and makes it to New York City. The unimaginable American Dream, after years of poverty and hardships, begins. The family constellation is interesting because the children cannot bear to have Mom near them. Both parents are alcoholics. Rex dies of a cardiac attack. Rosemary is mentally ill and bipolar to boot. At first Jeannette is reluctant to tell the truth about her family to her second husband but he urges her to tell it all in a novel. Wall's book is retold oral history and based on handed-down family stories.A good straight read and you're bound to say 'whew!' when you're finished. Empfehlenswert! (Satis Shroff)

You like this.
Satis Shroff http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Jeannette-Walls/19723841

Jeannette Walls

Jeannette Walls graduated from Barnard College and was a journalist in New York. Her memoir, The Glass Castle,...

authors.simonandschuster.com
Satis Shroff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Walls

Jeannette Walls - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jeannette Walls (born April 21, 1960) is an American...

en.wikipedia.org

Schwarzwaldlyrik: Ode to the Black Forest (Satis Shroff)

2014-11-03T01:40:00.000-08:00

Schwarzwaldlyrik: ODE TO THE BLACK FOREST (Satis Shroff)

ALPINE GRATITUDE (Satis Shroff)

The hamlets are scattered,

Tucked away in the side valleys and spurs

Of the Black Forest,

Which was once dark and foreboding.

A forest that once conjoured myths, legends

And fairy tales.

Under the hay and homesteads,

You find men and mice,

Good natured maids and children,

Healthy and happy cows, goats,

Sheep and swines.

The Schwarzwald farmers paid low taxes,

For Nature punished them enough.

They couldn't get rich on the craggy soil,

The high elevation and the long, raw winter.

Yet the Black Forest forced the soil,

To yield millet in Summer,

Wheat and barley,

Buried beneath a thick mantle of snow.

Ah, it's already past the month of October,

The young calves are in the stalls,

After a colourful, traditional walk

From the higher alpine meadows.

There's corn in the chamber,

Feed for the animals in the barns.

Around Freiburg the apple trees,

Are laden heavily with apples.

Your nostrils smell apple mixed with cinnamon and sugar:

Applekompott, apple moos, apple pancakes and pies.

* * *

THE HARVEST FESTIVAL (Satis Shroff)

Erntedank is the harvest festival,

The German Thanksgiving,

Celebrated on the first Sunday of October.

The richness of Nature is depicted

By bread, fruits and flowers.


(A card from the Schwarzwald with damsels in their traditional attire	)

The ladies wear lovely silk costumes,

Displaying their exquisite stiching and sewing creations:

Jewellery, pompom hats and headgear with pearls,

Expressing their gratitude

To the church, God and Mother Nature.

The Alemannic bread of Kaiserstuhl is legendary,

A procession of bakers and vereine

Ends the Alemannic Bread Market in Endingen.

Neighbouring France is known for cheese,

Germany excels with 300 sorts of bread.

It's such a delight to watch the calves and cows,

Mooing with their big collar bells,

Moving languidly down to the Erlenbacher meadows,

Over the golden, russet, brown fallen and withered leaves,

Lain by the wind like a rich carpet.

Around the Goldberg Hall and the cloister,

The alpine air is filled with cow bells,

The clash of beer glass and oompa music

Of the red-cheeked village musicians.

A homeland that has grown

Withe the centuries,

Thanks to the word of farmers,

Beautiful undulating landscapes,

Shaped by dextrous human hands,

From Erlenbach upto Feldberg.

(Hues of yellow, pale and dark green and russet leaves on the boughs (c)satisshroff)

Fresh air and lush green grass in the summer months,

Followed by stacks of hay and tangled hedges in autumn and winter.

In the vale below,

The local Ganter brewery opens

A keg of beer in the Goldenberg Hall,

The Old Timer Bulldog parade begins,

Followed by music of the brass band from Oberried.

The visitors relish the Badische cuisine:

Schweinebrated, würst, schnitzel, spätzle and salad,

And round it up with self-baked Schwarzwäldertorte,

Cheese cakes and wash it down with warm coffee.

The country women and farmers

Show and sell their creative wares,

Mr. Müller gathers alms for the church and cloister.

In the priest's hall there's a Kasperle theatre,

A puppet show staged by the Kindergarden of Oberried.

Frau Julia Lauby delivers a speech

On the assets and different races of the Black Forest cattle.

The birch trees have golden leaves on their boughs.

In the evening you sit,

Swinging with your neighbours

In an Alemannic Schoof.

The Goldberg Hall moves to and fro,

To the sound of 'Schwarzwald Sound.'

I take a swig of the brew,

And head for Kappel in the Dreisam Valley below,

Before the mirth and fun grow fast and furious,

As Robert Burns adminished

In Tam o' Shanter.

* * *

The Alemmanic cows grazing in Kirchzarten, below Gierberg, a wonderful place to have coffe & cakes and enjoy the Schwarzwald scenery (c)satisshroff.

ODE TO THE SCHWARZWALD (Satis Shroff)

Ach, February you’ve left us

As you came,

With your cold breeze,

Frosty and rich in snow.

Many a morning we had to shovel,

The tons of white mass,

Which you left behind

As your wintry legacy.

The wild boars and deer

Were circled by the Black Forest,

A sanctuary from the encroachment

Of Man,

But now the circle is disappearing,

Leaving Nature’s children unprotected.

The foresters drive the forest’s denizens together,

And I warn the deer,

With blasts from my vuvuzela.

An unequal hunt,

In which the unprotected animal

Is shot by the armed forester.

When they built the Schwarzwald Highway,

Workers from here and elsewhere,

Cut down proud trees,

Used dynamite to create

Tunnels and roads,

Made incursions

Into the fabled Black Forest.

People came and became farmers

In the valleys and spurs of the Schwarzwald.

Now the young have education,

And seek new jobs elsewhere in the towns,

And have left the Schwarzwald homesteads

Of their ancestors.

As the World War II generation

Breathe their last,

Can we blame the sons and daughters,

Who seek work to suit their brains?

Brain is victorious against brawn,

As people acquire more knowledge,

Multimedia whatsapps,

And degrees from universities.

The globe has become a village,

And the whisper of fields unsown,

Is drowned by the din and lure of modernity.

Yet there is hope,

For with a degree,

You can work

In the tourism industry,

When craggy mountains become assets.

People pay to climb peaks,

Or ski down the slopes,

Of the Schwarzwald, the Alps and Dolomites.

The wild mountains have been tamed,

Ravished by Man,

To serve his purpose.

If it doesn’t snow,

Why, just turn on the snow-machine.

Wellness or adventure,

When you’re prepared

To pay with plastic cards.

The Black Forest farms, forests and fields,

Are still covered

With a white mantle of snow,.

The tree silhouettes throw long shadows

On the slopes,

The misty shrouds rise above to the sky,

Creating the impression of pines trees,

Reigning over the clouds.

The snow and ice gathered on the rooftops

Come down with a thunderous roar,

In the middle of the night.

We call it Dachlawine:

A roof avalanche.

It’s the month of March,

The ice tries to defend itself

Against the smiling sun,

That breaks through the clouds.

The ponds and lakes show defiance,

Only to give in after some time,

For Surya’s rays are strong.

The icy sentinels collapse in defeat.

The frost on the twigs, branches and trees

Dwindle faster than they appeared.

The pearly dew disappears.

A light blue has descended

In a hurry.

The shepard from Kappel lights his pipe,

To enjoy the sunshine amid bleats.

He likes the harbinger of Spring,

For Spring means hope,

For the thrush, blackbird and his sheep.

Eichelheer, blackbirds and crows,

Hares and foxes appear in the meadows,

To bask in the soothing warmth of the sun.

This is the season of Brautschau,

When pairing begins.

Even the deer have come down

From the otherwise dark pine forest,

Now still laden with snow.

Snow everywhere,

In the forest and meadows.

It’s slushy, slippery to trudge.

When the sun laughs,

Snow and ice melt away.

The earth is not naked,

Stubbles of green grass

Are to be seen.

Life is appearing,

After the long, cold hibernation.

Majestic and serene,

The languidly moving clouds

Change their hues,

As the peaks and the sky in the distance

Appear yellow, orange and crimson.

The people walking along the high road

Become silhouettes of caricatures,

Held far away.

Long shadows appear

As the sun goes down.

The birds are settling for the night,

The mice in the meadows are bolting gleefully

Through the stubbly grass,

In and around the forests of Lindenberg.

* * *

Dreisam Valley's lovely Kappel on a sunny day (c)satisshroff

Schwarzwaldlyrik: Silence of the Morning (Satis Shroff)

The silence of the morning

Is broken gently by the friendly

Tweets and chirps of birds

Hidden among the Schwarzwald foliage.

An amsel lands on a branch

And listens.

A bumble bee dances by.

And out in the distance,

The blue Black Forest hills,

Studded with myriads

Of pine trees.

Lush green meadows,

Where the snows lay

Only a week ago.

I sit here on a ridge,

Overlooking my house,

The red baked rooftops

Of my German neighbours,

And watch a Mäusebussard

Flying languidly with keen eyes,

Swoop down to grab a mouse

In Meier's meadow.

The three rotors of the windmills

Are moving in the distant hills.

And below the bustle of Ebnet,

A picturesque town

Across the river Dreisam.

Glossary: Amsel: blackbird

Mäusebussard: buzzard that eats field mice.

* * * *

TOAD CROSSING (Satis Shroff)

On my way to the men's choir meeting,

Along the airy hill of Grosstal,

Past warbling brooks,

Past the wooden Black Forest houses,

I came across a toad crossing.

Even children were there,

Giving a helping hand,

As they gathered the toads,

In their plastic buckets,

To help them to the other side

Of the Schwarzwald path.

The toads creaked uneasily,

The crickets made their presence felt,

Night was falling.

Schattered in the inverted bowl,

We call the sky,

There were glittering stars,

Of an everlasting universe.

* * * *

TICKLING TONGUES (Satis Shroff)

Singers have to be friends,

Are the lyrics of an olde song.

Raise your glasses,

Be merry and rejoice.

Tickle your tongues

With Bacchus,

Beer and badische wine,

And your larynx:

Erhebet das Glas,

Gold'ne funken,

der Wein.

Sänger,

Sänger müssen Freunde sein!

* * * *

(Aquarelle (c)satisshroff)

GAIETY AND INNOCENCE (Satis Shroff)

The moment he entered the bedroom

And saw them entangled in embrace,

The gaiety and innocence

Of a relationship,

That had undergone hardships,

Was gone.

The kisses had become cold,

And died out.

They parted

Never to meet again,

As a pair.

What followed was a krieg

Of the roses.

Wounded hearts

That couldn't be restored.

Insults, tirades,

And accusations,

Instead of smiles and kisses.

A chapel in Oberried (c)satisshroff

In court,

Out of court,

On the phone, smy, what's app,

Even twitter.

You ask: 'What's up?

How did the kids take it?'

They took sides.

Never wanting to see her,

The Mom in who's womb

They grew,

In her amniotic ocean,

Till they could breathe air.

And now they despise

Her very breath,

Behind their necks.

Gone are the fond kisses and hugs.

Wounds that run deep with disdain.

Forgive and forget,

Nein, never, nie!

And so goes the conflict,

Till a silly court decision is made,

By a judge,

Who cares a damn

About yin and yang.

Gone is the gaiety and innocence,

Loss and pain,

Is what remains.

* * * *

HERMANN HESSE: The Swiss Buddha (Satis Shroff)

In Summer he walked through Tessin’s

Villages and chestnut forests.

Sat on his folding-chair,

Tried to capture

The magic around him,

With water-colours.

In the warm nights

He tried to sing with words,

The song of the beautiful summer.

A lonely man,

Drunk in his loneliness,

Was elated by Nature

To new heights.

A year after World War I,

He journeyed to Montagnola,

A hamlet overlooking the Lugner lake,

On the southern tip of Switzerland.

Summer was for him

A celebration,

Triumph of the inner summer,

To burn away his inner depression,

That gnawed at him.

He began to write:

‘Klingsor’s last Summer,’

‘Siddhartha,’ ‘Narcis and Goldmund.’

His health didn’t improve in Tessin,

But it became a Heimat,

Away from home,

A much longed for refuge.

He had a personal crisis in 1919,

Like so often in his life.

He left his wife Mia and three kids,

The way Siddhartha Gautama did,

On his search for truth.

Unlike Siddhartha,

He belonged to the literati,

A suspected foreigner,

Who lived on milk,

Rice and macaroni.

He donned his old, worn-out suits,

Ate sweet chestnuts he’d gathered from the forest.

As he stood in his garden,

He saw Monte Bre,

Beyond the palms and magnolias.

By naughty Swiss farmer’s sons,

Who threw stones his way.

To the Swiss from the hamlet,

He was miserly, aloof, not given to talk.

One couldn’t get warm with him.

They did bestow upon him

A honorary citizenship,

After he received the Nobel Prize in ‘46.

The Make War, Not Peace Generation loved him,

He was discovered by beat Poets.

A rock band even called itself ‘Steppen Wolf.’

He took a rucksack and wine.

Trekked to Agra, Arasio,

Certenago and Gentilino.

Did you know they served

Cats with polenta in those days?

He was piqued when he came to know this.

Across the Rhine,

The Germans served prowling cats too,

Albeit with another name: roof-rabbits.

Hunger was widespread during and after the wars years.

He took his psychiatrist by word,

Devoted his life to colours.

3000 paintings were his passionate legacy.

The deep green Luganer lake

Fascinated him.

What Algeria was to Albert Camus,

Was Tessin to him.

Although he was one with Tessin,

He was unsentimental to his wife.

His entire sympathy was reserved

Only for his feline friend.

A stroke in his brain

Ended his solitary life

On August 11, 1062

Was buried in Tessin,

With a backdrop of San Abbondio,

Lined with Cypresses:

Hermann Hesse,

The Swiss Buddha.

* * *

Auf ein Lied mit Satis Shroff

2014-10-31T08:21:00.000-07:00

Auf ein Lied mit

Satis Shroff

Geboren in Ghopa, Nepal

Beruf Dozent, Autor, Sänger (www.mgv-kappel.de)

Chorerfahrung: Ja. Zuerst in einer britischen Schule und später beim Männergesangverein.

Zuletzt habe ich als Solist und Chormitglied in unserem Projektchor gesungen.
Am liebsten singe ich, wenn ich daheim die Wäsche bügle oder beim Wandern im Schwarzwald.
Unter der Dusche singe ich Elvis, Simon & Garfunkel, El Divo Lieder und „Weit,weit weg“ von Herbert von Goisern.
Zum singen inspiriert hat mich meine Mutter, meine ehemalige Gesangslehrerin, Nepals Minnesänger, Broadway, Bollywood und unser Kappler Chor.
Glücklich macht mich Das Lied „I'm Still Standing“ von Elton John.
Tränen kommen mir bei dem Lied „Durch's Wiesetaltal gang i“ aus dem badischen Schwarzwald.
Das schönste Volkslied ist „Sonnenaufgang“ von Peter Cornelius.
Meine liebsten Kinderlieder sind „Humpty Dumpty“ und „Que Sera, Sera.“
Gänsehaut bekomme ich bei dem Chorstück „Abendfrieden“ von Hildegard Eckhardt.
Einen Ohrwurm hatte ich zuletzt von „Nun ade, du mein lieb Heimatland.“
Ich würde gerne einmal zusammen singen mit Helene Fischer.
Ohne Singen würde in meinem Leben etwas wichtiges fehlen.

Photoessay: IMPRESSIONS FROM AMSTERDAM (Satis Shroff)

2014-10-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

IMPRESSIONS FROM AMSTERDAM (Satis Shroff)

Transition Michael Stotz, a dear friend and singer from the Men's Choir-Kappel (Satis Shroff)

2014-10-16T01:37:00.000-07:00

MGV-Kappel mit Michael Stotz

Michael Stotz mit Werner Heise, MGV-Kappel

Andreas, Herbert, Dirk und Michael in Zunzingen

Adolf Fressle, Satis Shroff, Michael Stotz, Klaus Sütterle

Obituary: We've lost a dear friend and singer: Michael Stotz (14.7.1943-10.10.2014.

Das Leben als Ganzes nimmt den Tod nie ernst. Es lacht, tanzt und spielt, baut Häuser, sammelt Schätze und liebt, dem Tode zum Trotz. Nur wenn wir einen einzelnen Todesfall für sich betrachten, starrt uns seine Leere an, und wir werden von Grauen erfaßt. --Rabindranath Tagore.

Michael will live in our hearts. I can hear his tremendous, manly bass voice as we sang songs at the many concerts of the MGV-Kappel. If he was not present you could feel his absence. He was warm-hearted, jolly, wise, helpful and gentlemanly in nature. I remember the day he handed me a beautiful book with the title 'Kappel im Tal,' and the following words:

Lieber Satish, Willkommen in Kappel.

Als eine kleine Hilfe zur Orientierung in Deiner neuen Heimat soll dieses Buch Dir dienen.

Deine Sänger

i.A. Michael Stotz

03.11.2009

May his soul rest in peace.

-- Satis Shroff

Michael Stotz, Förster i. R. und MGV-Sänger (14.07.1943-10.10.2014)

Medical Ethnology World Congress: Shamanism in the Modern World (Satis Shroff)

2014-10-12T04:54:00.000-07:00

Savvy Shamanism in the Modern World? (Satis Shroff)

... im größten Bürostress abgehetzt zum Termin in der Münchner Innenstadt … und da sitzt der Schamane aus Ecuador und redet und redet und redet - alles ist still, wird immer leiser und hört gespannt zu, tauchen ein in eine komplett andere Welt, in den Urwald in Ecuador, atemberaubende Erfahrungen mit seinen Meistern, Trance-Visionen mit heiligen Pflanzen, was sie für Botschaften haben, was sie für Töne machen, was im Urwald für Musik zu hören ist, was für raschelnde Geister und kleine Wesen aus dem Nichts auftauchen.

Er summt, er singt, Leute außen um uns herum horchen auf, halten still, erstaunte Gesichter, sie lauschen, ganz unauffällig … Der Schamane aus Ecuador steht plötzlich auf und humpelt auf einem Bein und mit einem zugehaltenen Auge durchs Cafe - und erklärt, so gehen wir durchs Leben, wenn wir die Dinge nur halb sehen, halb begreifen, halb erleben, halb verstehen - die Spiritualität gehört dazu um die Dinge hinter den Dingen zu sehen, um das Ganze zu begreifen jenseits von Raum und Zeit, da gibt es nur Eins, das Eine, das Alles ist. Auch das Erlernen des Bösen gehört dazu, denn ein Messer schneidet alles, es ist ein Werkzeug um das Gute, das Heilen, die Wiederherstellung der Ordnung zu meistern. Man geht im Leben den ganzen Weg, das ganze Muster aus Fallen und Aufstehen, Erkranken und Gesunden, Leiden und Freude, das ist das Ganze, Schamanismus ist das Grausamste und das Schönste zugleich, ganz nah beieinander, was ein Mensch erleben kann.

Wir mussten die Sitzung leider leider irgendwann abbrechen, denn an einem Montag dreht sich das Rad der Zeit doch weiter, und wir freuen uns riesig darauf von Yerpun Solar im Programm von INFOMED mehr zu hören und zu lernen ... inspiriert zurück ins Büro, frisch, ausgeruht, gestärkt, da weiß man wieder, dass alles einen Sinn macht, das ganze Muster, grausam und schön zugleich, eben ein Ganzes …

Weltkongress der Ganzheitsmedizin 15-17. Mai 2015

Ab heute dürfen wir den WELTKONGRESS DER GANZHEITSMEDIZIN 15.-17. Mai 2015 in München ankündigen und freuen uns, wenn Sie sich eine günstige Früh-Frühbucher-Teilnehmerkarte sichern. Informationen zum Programm finden Sie auf Infomationen zum Weltkongress Mai 2015 hier
Informationen zur Anmeldung finden Sie auf Früh-Frühbucher-Anmeldung jetzt sichern!
Der Kongress ist für Professionelle im Gesundheitsbereich und steht ebenso allen interessierten Menschen offen. Alle Vorträge und Workshops werden ins deutsche übersetzt. Bitte nutzen Sie den Anmelde-Abschnitt am Ende dieses newsletters und senden uns die Anmeldung direkt per email.

DIE SCHAMANISCHE REISE

Das starke Gebrüll war überall im Urwald zu hören. Apu Uturunqu Wamani war gegangen. Ich verstand: “Lerne und weiche nicht zurück! Und wenn Du es machst, dann mach es nur so wie ich es bei einem Sprung nach vorne tue - kämpfe für das, was Du liebst und als Dein Eigenes siehst. Lass Dich nicht besiegen!“ Die Natur spricht. Apu Uturunku Wamani lehrte mich. Krafttiere sind Lehrer, führen und helfen uns. Sie verleihen uns ihre Fähigkeiten unsere persönliche, gesundheitliche und berufliche Angelegenheiten zu meistern. Sie helfen uns Respekt, Vertrauen und Glauben und die Aktivierung der Selbst-heilungskräfte aufzubauen. Er umarmte mich und sagte: “Wiracocha Varón, endlich hast Du hergefunden…Bist Du bereit für Deinen nächsten Abschnitt? Bist Du bereit, für Deine nächste Ebene? Carlos Arias Seguras Wiracocha Kamayoc, Schamane aus Peru
Früh-Frühbucher für den Weltkongess der Ganzheitsmedizin 15.-17. Mai 2015

SCHMERZFREI UND BEWEGLICH – EIN LEBEN LANG

Verblüffend schnell schmerzfrei - ohne Medikamente, ohne Operation, völlig natürlich und nebenwirkungsfrei. Schmerzen des Bewegungsapparats sind meist muskulär bedingt. Fehlbelastungen, langes Sitzen oder Überlastung führen zu Muskelverkürzungen, Verspannungen und Verklebungen der Faszien. Wir behandeln die Ursache der Schmerzen: zunächst wird die Muskulatur mittels einer speziellen manuellen Technik entspannt, wodurch der Alarmschmerz nachlässt. Danach werden spezielle Dehnungsübungen, die so genannten Engpassdehnungen, zur Selbstbehandlung vermittelt. Effektiv ob im Profisport bei typischen Sportverletzungen oder bei chronischen Schmerzzuständen wie Migräne, Rückenschmerzen, Hüft- & Kniearthrose, Fibromyalgie, Karpaltunnelsyndrom oder Schulterschmerzen. Wir unterrichten in Kleingruppen und geben unserem Körper genau die notwendigen ergänzenden Bewegungsreize, um dauerhaft schmerzfrei, leistungsfähig und voller Energie zu bleiben. Dr. med. Wolfgang Karner, Zentrum für Ganzheitsmedizin in Freiburg kommt zum Weltkongress der Ganzheitsmedizin 31.10.-2.11.2014

Schmerzfreizentrum-Freiburg

LEAKEY´S PLACE - DAS WIRKEN DER LUO-HEILER AUS OSTAFRIKA

Die ostafrikanischen Witchdoctors bauen ihre Heilmethoden auf einer Basis, wonach Körper, Geist und Seele eine untrennbare Einheit bilden. Ken Onyango, der in Kisumu (Kenia) praktizierender Witchdoctor, zeigt uns in seinen Ritualen neben magisch wirkenden Gegenständen auch Kräuter, die sowohl durch ihre Inhaltsstoffe, als auch durch die ihnen zugeschriebenen übernatürlichen Kräfte wirken. Begleitet wird Ken von Nickson Ogilo, einem Luo aus Abimbo, der vor allem der dazugehörigen Mythen und Legenden sowie der Lebensweise seines Volkes kundig ist. Kurt Lussi wird das von Ken und Nickson präsentierte Wissen in einen Zusammenhang mit den Vorstellungen des ursprünglichen europäischen Heilwissens bringen und Gemeinsamkeiten aufdecken, die als Brücke zur Völkerverständigung dienen können. Ken Onyango, Nickson Ogilo aus Kenia und Kurt Lussi, Kurator, Schweiz

Früh-Frühbucher für den Weltkongress der Ganzheitsmedizin 15.-17. Mai 2015

DAS ERBE DER ZIRKUMPOLAREN PALÄOLITHISCHEN HEILKUNDE

Die Jäger-und-Sammlerinnen Kulturen der Nach-eiszeit waren in Besitz einer effektiven Heilkunde. Genaue Kenntnisse der lokalen Flora, Anwendung von Schwitzhütte, Maßnahmen zur Purgierung (Abführ- und Brechmittel) und schamanische Praktiken gehörten zu dessen wichtigsten Elementen. Anhand des Schwarzen Holunders, der in Europa, Sibirien, wie auch in Nordamerika eine wesentliche Rolle in den Heil-Ritualen spielte, illustriert Mag. Dr. Wolf-Dieter Storl diese verschiedenen Aspekte jener steinzeitlichen Heilkunde und Phytotherapie, die bis in die heutige Volksmedizin weiter wirkt. Dr. Wolf Dieter Storl, Ethnobotaniker, Allgäu

Weltkongess der Ganzheitsmedizin 15.-17. Mai 2015

TRANSFORMATION UND HEILUNG - SCHAMANISMUS UND HEILKRÄFTE DER MEISTER AUS PERU

Mein Vater, der große Meister Don Agustín Rivas, nahm mich schon als Junge auf alle Wege der Heilung und Medizin mit. Ich lernte viele Meister kennen wie den Schamanen Don Ramón Sanchez, die der Shipibo-Indianer und die Spirits, die ich in meinem Herzen trage. Und studierte Heilmittel, auf der Basis von Wurzeln, Blättern und Rinden. Es gilt mit großen Respekt für die Pflanzen sich von Herz zu Herz zu verbinden, so dass sie starke Heilungsprozesse in Bewegung bringen können und man tiefe Zusammenhänge erkennen kann. Mein Weg zum Heiler war schon damals vorbereitet. Mit Hingabe durchlebte ich tiefgreifende Prozesse. Ich lernte die Deutschen kennen, die Berge in der Schweiz, die Lebenskraft der Österreicher. Es ist an der Zeit sich für die Heilung und die Genesung mit der Welt zu verbinden. Wir sind in der Kraft der Spiritualität, der Transformation und der Freiheit. Cesar Agustin Viejo Gonzales, Schamane aus Peru kommt zum Weltkongress der Ganzheitsmedizin 15.-17. Mai 2015 in München

Früh-Frühbucher für den Weltkongess der Ganzheitsmedizin 15.-17. Mai 2015

DIE NATUR DES SCHAMANISMUS

Interpretationen und Fehlinterpretationen z.B. von Schamanen als Teufelsgesandte, Scharlatane, Schizophrene, Astralreisende oder Drogendealer. Schamanische Studien in den kognitiven Neurowissenschaften, Sozialpsychologie, psychologische Therapie und ökologische Psychologie. In Erkenntnistheorie und Methodik des Schamanismus werden die "Wege des Wissens" beschrieben. Schamanen sind Psychopomps, Seelenbegleiter, die helfen, Übergänge zu meistern, die meisten kritisch vom Leben zum Tod zur Wiedergeburt. Die Teilnehmer werden ein Ritual, das diesen Weg geht, durchführen. Einmal "wiedergeboren", werden sie Wege finden, um das Wissen in ihren Alltag zu integrieren und ihre Ziele zu erreichen. Prof. Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. Professor für transpersonale Psychologie in San Francisco. Pionier in der Bewusstseinsforschung. Forschungen in schamanischen und spirituellen Heilmethoden, Mythologie & Träume sowie Bewusstseinszustände.

Früh-Frühbucher für den Weltkongress der Ganzheitsmedizin 15.-17. Mai 2015

WILLKOMMEN IN MÜNCHEN

Ich möchte Sie in der Landeshauptstadt München ganz herzlich zum Weltkongress der Ethnotherapien und Ganzheitsmedizin begrüßen. Ich freue mich sehr, dass der Kongress zum wiederholten Male in München stattfindet. An den Begrifflichkeiten ist schon erkennbar, dass es in der Schulmedizin vorwiegend um die Behandlung von Krankheit geht, um das Diagnostizieren und Therapieren von Krankheiten. In den letzten Jahren wird in der Gesundheitspolitik der Gedanke der Prävention wieder stärker gefordert, auch die Ganzheitlichkeit und die alternativen Heilmethoden halten Einzug in das Gesundheitssystem, allerdings noch in homöopathischen Dosen. Ich hoffe sehr, dass dieser Kongress dazu beiträgt, die Verbindungen von traditionellen Heilmethoden und der modernen Medizin zu fördern. Es ist in unser aller Interesse, wenn wir die technisierte Medizin, die den Menschen nur bedingt gesund machen kann, erweitern um die Therapien aus der Ethnomedizin. Lydia Dietrich, Stadträtin

Früh-Frühbucher für den Weltkongess der Ganzheitsmedizin 15.-17. Mai 2015

OPEN HEALER FORUM - INTERKULTURELLER UND INTERDISZIPLINÄRER AUSTAUSCH

Ein Anliegen der Konferenz ist der direkte Austausch zwischen traditionellen Heilern, Schamanen, aufgeschlossenen Wissenschaftlern, Vertretern moderner Therapiemethoden und der Öffentlichkeit. Hier finden Sie Heiler, Wissenschaftler und Therapeuten in einem Expertenrat für Sie zusammen im großen Hörsaal. Teilnehmer sind eingeladen eigene Themen oder Themen ihrer Patienten vorzustellen. Die Heiler, Wissenschaftler und Therapeuten werden mit Ihnen ins Gespräch gehen, Ursachen erläutern, Empfehlungen aussprechen und Wissen teilen und austauschen. Hier können Sie sich eines unserer Open-Healer-Forum anhören:
Hörbeispiel: Open Healer Forum

Neu: Therapeuten-Fortbildung Ethnomedizin

Ab 3. + 4. November 2014

in den Räumlichkeiten der Medizinischen Fakultät der Ludwig Maximilians Universität München. Herzlich willkommen zur Therapeuten-Fortbildung Ethnomedizin, dem Einstieg in die interdisziplinäre Welt der Ethnotherapien und die Erweiterung Ihres Spektrums beruflichen Handelns und der persönlichen Entwicklung. Die Therapeuten-Fortbildung Ethnomedizin wendet sich an praktizierende Fachleute aus den Bereichen der Medizin, Psychotherapie und Naturheilkunde und an lehrende, beratende und pflegende Kollegen.

Für die Therapeuten-Fortbildung ab 3.+4. November 2014 (Inhalte siehe weiter unten) gibt es noch Plätze. Hier wird in viermal zwei Intensiv-Tagen über ein Jahr auf höchstem Niveau in Kleingruppen mit Heilern, Schamanen, Medizinleuten aus verschiedenen Kulturen zusammen-gearbeitet und therapeutisches Wissen ausgetauscht und geübt. Supervisoren, Wissenschaftler und erfahrene Praktiker begleiten die Reihe. Link Fortbildung Programm + Anmeldung Für die Termine 2015 freuen wir uns auf hochkarätige Referenten wie zB Prof. Dr. Stanley Krippner, weltberühmter Schamanenforscher aus den U.S.A, Saira Serikbajewa, Schamanin aus Kasachstan & Maria Gavrilenko, Professorin für Sprachen und Übersetzerin von Saira aus Kasachstan, Ken Onyango, Witchdoctor aus Kenia, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Tucek, Sufimeister und Musiktherapeut, Yerpun Solar, Schamane aus Ecuador u.v.m.

Alle Fortbildungs-Elemente werden ins Deutsche übersetzt. Informationen: Therapeuten-Fortbildung Programm + Anmeldung

DIE WEISHEIT DES HEILENS – VON DER ETHNOMEDIZIN ZUR GANZHEITSMEDIZIN

Erscheint Ende Oktober 2014. Reservieren Sie sich bis 30. Oktober 2014 ein Frühbucher-Exemplar für nur €39.- statt ab 31. Oktober für €69.-! Abstracts in deutsch und englisch.
Das zunehmende Interesse an ganzheitsmedizinischen Themen und an Ethnomedizin stammt einerseits aus dem Interesse für die Heiltraditionen und Fertigkeiten anderer Kulturen. Andererseits zeigen sich zunehmend auch die Grenzen einer wissenschaftlich ausgerichteten Hochtechnologie-Medizin. Viele Menschen suchen daher entweder für sich selbst oder für die Integration in ihre Praxis neue Perspektiven. Heiler, Medizinleute, Medien und Schamanen aus fernen Ländern führen uns zeitlich zurück in unsere eigene europäische Vergangenheit und lassen uns auch reisen in andere, außereuropäische Kulturen. Das besondere an diesem Werk sind die spannenden Einblicke der Ärzte, Psychologen, Heilpraktikers und Theologen die darüberhinaus bereits einen weiten Weg des Studiums und der Erforschung der Ethnomedizin in Theorie und Praxis gegangen sind. Sie haben Therapie-Ansätze entwickelt, schama- nisches und ethnomedizinisches Wissen in ihre Praxis zu integrieren. Mit einer Einleitung von Wolf Dieter Storl und wissenschaftlichen Darlegungen des weltberühmten Schamanenforschers Prof. Dr. Stanley Krippner.

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Hier entsteht im Frühjahr 2015 das Naturheilzentrum München – Nord: Wir suchen ganzheitlich orientierte Ärzte/innen, Heilpraktiker/innen
und Therapeuten/innen. Wir verstehen uns als ein Zentrum, in dem „der Mensch“, als einzigartig und individuell erkannt und behandelt wird. Alle, die den Weg zu uns finden, erhalten an unserem Zentrum ein vielfältiges, therapeutisches Angebot. Wir laden Sie herzlich ein, sich unserem Projekt mit ganzen Herzen anzuschließen. Kontakt per Email an: Naturheilzentrum-Nord@gmx.de

Einladung zum Expertenteam-Vortrag "Meine Rente - aber sicher" Do., den 18. November 2014 um 18:30 Uhr im "Angelo-Designhotel" in München, Albert-Roßhaupter-Str. 45. Menschen werden immer älter und beziehen ihre Rente für einen immer längeren Zeitraum. Es stellt sich die Frage: "Droht mir die Armut im Alter ?" Ja, mit Sicherheit ! Es sei denn, Sie überlegen sich, wie Sie einen Zeitraum von 20 bis 25 Jahren Leben finanzieren o h n e zu arbeiten. Denn Sie sind ja dann Rentner oder Pensionär. Unkostenbeitrag €25.- für die Raumkosten und mit einem kleinen Imbiss und Getränken. Es gibt Antworten, sehr gute Antworten. Melden Sie sich jetzt an und senden eine mail an info@flohr-finanzen.de oder greifen Sie zum Hörer 0 81 53 - 85 44. Herzlichen Gruß, Michael Flohr

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Die “Ruta de Wiracocha” (Weg von Wiracocha” Wiracocha = grosser Geist) repräsentiert den mytologischen Aufstieg des Geistes in Verbindung der Bewusstwerdung auf unserem Weg.
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CENTRO AMAZANGA – Zentrum zur Erhaltung traditionellen Wissens
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Centro Amazanga verwirklicht verschiedene Projekte wie die Schule und Bildungszentrum, das Programm zum Studium und zur Erforschung des traditionellen Wissens, die ganzheitliche Klinik & Native Spa und das Programm zur Wiederaufforstung & Ethnobotanischer Garten. Initiiert und geführt wird das Centro Amazanga von Yerpun Solar. www.centro-amazanga.com/de

Zeitgeistlyrik: Angst and Anger Spreads in Europe (Satis Shroff)

2014-10-12T03:15:00.000-07:00

Zeitgeistlyrik:

Angst and Anger Spreads in Europe (Satis Shroff)

The Kurdish farmer reached the Turkish border

And said: 'Thank Allah, I'm safe now.'

He knew those who remained in his village

Would be beheaded by the IS.

Mohammed Ali was one of 100,000 fleeing Kurds

In an exodus to the safety of Turkey.

What did Turkey and the Alliance do,

To prevent this genocide?

Not much, aside from drinking tea.

Many countries are now flooded

With Syrian war refugees.

Help is there for those who could flee.

But there are 12,000 civilians in Kobane,

Among them 700 elderly people.

What will happen to them?

Angst and anger spreads in Europe.

The scenario of a massacre on civilians,

Similar to Sebrenica is unfurling.

No infantry soldiers from the world's nations,

Only air attacks and drone surveillance.

Why should the USA intervene,

When the neighbouring countries don't?

The fierce IS fighters are in Kobane,

And also in Iraq.

Kobane is doomed to fall,

So is Bagdad.

Lambs to be sacrificed to the IS.

Angst, grief and anger spreads in Europe.

Appeals and demonstrations of Kurds

In European cities make the rounds.

The angst of Europeans are the Jihad fighters,

Who left Europe to fight for the Islamac States.,

And who now return

To their domiciles in Europe.

Politicians fear that these IS fighters

Have been brainwashed ideologically,

And to prove their worth,

Had to commit brutal murders.

The angst remains for such battle-tested fighters,

May be obliged to carry out the goals of the IS,

Within Europe.

Angst and anger spreads in Europe.

Years hence, people will ask themselves:

Was it wise to watch Kobane and Bagdad

Go up in flames?

'No one who carries out aggression,

Can use God as a protective shield,'

Said Pope Franziskus to politicians in Tirana.

The talibans and the IS have done it,

Again and again,

For the sake of Allah.

The indecision of the world's leaders,

Is the ace of the Islamic States.

Grief and anger spreads in the minds of Europeans.

Satis Shroff's CATMANDU-LITERARY-CAFE

2014-09-30T03:22:00.001-07:00

https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/113594750772198325436/113594750772198325436/about/p/pubhttps://plus.google.com/u/0/b/113594750772198325436/113594750772198325436/about/p/pub
Catmandu-Literature-Cafe (Satis Shroff)

Monsoon Landslides in Sunkosi Nepal (Satis Shroff)

2014-09-25T23:22:00.002-07:00

MONSOON LANDSLIDES IN NEPAL (Satis Shroff)
Subtitle: Erleichterung, doch keine Entwarnung

Am 10. August berichteten wir vom eine Woche vorher geschehenen Erdrutsch im Tal des Sunkoshi. Damals stürzten große Erdmassen ins Flussbett und stauten das Wasser zu einem großen See auf, der die abwärts gelegenen Ansiedlungen bedrohte.

Seither konnte die Situationtrotz großer Anstrengungen durch das Militär nicht vollständig entschärft werden. Ein Teil-Durchbruch des Dammes brachte eine Flutwelle, jedoch in geringerem Ausmaß, so dass zwar große Sachschäden aber keine Opfer zu beklagen sind.

Die Hoffnung, dass die große Katastrophe ausbleibt, ist damit gestiegen. Die Gefahr ist jedoch noch nicht gebannt. Wir Ofenmacher bedanken uns herzlich für die spontanen Spenden. Falls Dörfer in unseren Ofenbaugebieten in Mitleidenschaft gezogen werden, wollen wir die Spenden dort verwenden. Wenn, wie wir alle hoffen, nichts Schlimmes mehr passiert, werden wir sie für unser reguläres Ofenbau-Programm in Nepal einsetzen.

Lesen Sie den Bericht unserer Sektionsleiterin für Nepal, Christa Drigalla.

Dr. Frank Dengler, Erster Vorsitzender

Monsun in Nepal - Sunkoshi Erdrutsch

Der Monsunregen traf Nepal in diesem Jahr besonders heftig und hat in vielen Gebieten große Schäden angerichtet.

In Sindhupalchok, nahe unserem Ofenbaugebiet rutschte ein ganzer Hügel ab und blockierte einen Arm des Sunkoshi Flusses. Insgesamt wurden 50 Häuser begraben und 156 Menschen für tot erklärt, 119 Familien sind betroffen 500 Menschen wurden obdachlos.

Wie immer in Nepal ist es sehr schwierig, konkrete Informationen zu bekommen, wie es genau in dem betroffenen Gebiet aussieht und wie sinnvolle Hilfe geleistet werden kann.

Die größte Gefahr ging von dem blockierten Fluss Sunkoshi aus, denn es bildete sich ein drei Kilometer langer See mit bis zu 50 Meter Tiefe aus. Zurückgehalten wurde das Wasser von Geröll und Schlamm des Erdrutsches. Je höher das Wasser stieg, desto gefährdeter waren die Dörfer hinter dem „Damm“ bei einem Ausbruch einfach weggespült zu werden. Die Facharbeiter der nepalesischen Armee versuchten wochenlang mit gezielten Sprengungen den Abfluss kontrolliert zu öffnen, was nur sehr vorsichtig durchgeführt werden konnte und nur sehr begrenzt erfolgreich war.

Am 7. September, nach 35 Tagen, brach die Blockade teilweise auf und entleerte große Wassermengen, der Wasserstand sank um ca. 15 Meter. Die Menschen in den Dörfern unterhalb des künstlichen Dammes hatten sich irgendwie an die Gefahr gewöhnt und versuchten ein normales Leben zu führen. Obwohl die ganze Gegend in Alarmbereitschaft versetzt war und alle Bewohner in Ufernähe aufgerufen waren, ihre Häuser zu verlassen und höher gelegene Gebiete aufzusuchen, pflanzten die Bauer ihre Reisfelder an und trieben auch ihr Vieh auf die Weiden am Fluss.

Der Durchbruch erfolgte, wie auch schon der Erdrutsch, in den frühen Morgenstunden. Deshalb war noch niemand auf den Feldern oder Wiesen und lediglich die Felder wurden zerstört und weggespült, was natürlich auch ein großer Verlust für die einfachen Bauern ist. Auch wurden wieder einige Häuser weggerissen oder so schwer zerstört, dass sie aufgegeben werden müssen, aber es kamen keine Menschen zu schaden. Weiter unten, entlang des Sunkoshi, waren die Menschen entsprechend gewarnt und konnten der Flutwelle ausweichen.

Die Hauptstraße nach Tibet ist immer noch unterbrochen, weil auf einer Länge von 2,5 km der Arniko Highway verschüttet und wahrscheinlich auch zerstört ist. Die Arbeiten laufen, soweit das möglich ist in der Regenzeit, auf Hochtouren, diese wichtige Verkehrsader wieder passierbar zu machen. Inzwischen wurde eine kleinere Straße erweitert und kann seit dem 10. Sept als Alternative genutzt werden. Sie ist allerdings nur begrenzt belastbar.

Auch ist die Stromversorgung für Kathmandu weiterhin behindert, da drei Wasserkraftwerke direkt oder indirekt von der Katastrophe betroffen sind. Sonst gab es in der Regenzeit keine Probleme mit Stromsperren, jetzt aber müssen die Städter noch für längere Zeit mit erheblichen Einschränkungen rechnen.

Christa Drigalla
Presselinks

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=82612
http://www.ekantipur.com/2014/09/08/headlines/Sunkoshi-bursts-landslide-dam/394724/

Satellitenaufnahmen von Earth Observatory
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=84406

Diesen Newsletter als pdf-Datei herunterladen

Copyright © 2014, Die Ofenmacher e.V., All rights reserved.

Forgotten Refugees Reach the American Shangri La (Satis Shroff)

2014-09-23T01:49:00.002-07:00

FORGOTTEN REFUGEES REACH THE AMERICAN SHANGRI LA (Satis Shroff)

Subtitle: Dankeschön USA!

Bhutan has always been promoted by the western media as a country with a high Gross National Happiness. But the Nepalese who lived in Bhutan were not happy because they wanted to preserve their own culture and ethnicity, and that was too much for the Bhutanese elite who threw them out of Shangri La because they wanted no democratic thinking people. The Nepalese are proud of their culture and religion. There are Nepalese living peacefully and with dignity and mutual respect in the neighbouring areas like Sikkim, Darjeeling Hill Council, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri. The demands of the then Bhutanese government were too intimidating for the Nepalese living in Bhutan, so they were forced to leave their homes in Bhutan and migrate to camps near the Indo-Nepalese border till 2008. Thanks to the UN and the USA a great resettlement programme was started and the culturall impoverished Bhutanese of Nepalese origin were finally settled across the big pond to a new Shangri La, where the people didn't have any objections if they wore their daura suruwals, were not asked to marry Bhutanese women, a land where they could learn English from native-speakers, speak Nepali at home and had better job opportunities through better US education. The USA is Shangri La for most young people.A lot of success stories are emerging and the Nepalese show abilities of adaptation in their new US environment. Dankeschön USA!

The world took little notice when, in the early 1990s, the peaceful Kingdom of Bhutan expelled some 100,000 ethnic Nepalis known as Lhotsampas, or “people from the south.” The Lhotsampas languished in refugee camps, which had thatched huts and clay floors, in Nepal until 2008 when the UN set the wheels in motion for one of the most ambitious refugee resettlement programs ever undertaken.

Satis Shroff, Freiburg: WALK, READ, WRITE, SING, SMILE

2014-09-23T01:40:00.002-07:00

I'm a German of Nepalese descent based in Freiburg, and have worked in Kathmandu(Nepal) as a features journalist (The Rising Nepal) and wrote commentaries for Radio Nepal. before coming to Germany for my further studies. I speak English, German,Nepali and Hindi. My anthology of poems, travelogues and articles have been published on www.lulu.com/spotlight/satisle, and I love networking, blogging on Nature, zeitgeistlyrik, Nepal, Germany, the Himalayas and the Schwarzwald. My tags are: himalayas, alps, black forest, ecology, germany, nepal,longing, miteinander (togetherness), compassion, mutual respect. Motto: walk, read, write, sing, smile.

Prosepoem: A Minstrel's Songs of Love and Sorrow (Satis Shroff)

2014-09-22T02:05:00.000-07:00

Prosepoem: A Minstrel’s Songs of Love and Sorrow

(Satis Shroff)

Go away, you maya. Disappear. Haunt me not in my dreams.. What has become of my country? My grandpa said: “In Nepal even a child Can walk the countryside alone.” It’s just not true, not for a Nepalese, born with a sarangi in his hand. I’m a musician, one of the lower caste in the Hindu hierarchy. I bring delight to my listeners, hope to touch the hearts of my spectators.

I sing about love, hate and evil, kings and queens, princes and princesses, The poor and the rich, and the fight for existence, in the craggy foothills and the towering heights of the Himalayas, the Abode of the Snows, where Buddhist and Hindu Gods and Goddesses reside, and look over mankind and his folly. I was born in Tanhau, a nondescript hamlet in Nepal, were it not for Bhanu Bhakta Acharya who was born here, the Nepalese poet who translated the Ramayana, from high-flown Sanskrit into simple Nepali for all to read.

I remember the first day my father handed me a sarangi. He taught me how to hold and swing the bow. I was delighted with the first squeaks it made, as I moved the bow on the taught horsetail strings. It was as though my small sarangi was talking with me in its baby-talk. I was so happy, I and my sarangi, my sarangi and me. Tears of joy ran down my cheeks. I was so thankful. I touched my Papa’s feet, as is the custom in the Himalayas. I could embrace the whole world. My father taught me the tones, and the songs to go with them, for we gaineys are minstrels who wander from place to place, like gypsies, like butterflies in Spring. We are a restless folk to be seen everywhere, where people dwell, for we live from their charity and our trade.
The voice of the gainey, the sad melody of the sarangi. A boon to those who love the lyrics, a nuisance to those who hate it. Many a time, we’ve been kicked and beaten by young people who prefer canned music, from their ghetto-blasters. Outlandish melodies, electronic beats you can’t catch up with. Spinning on their heads, hip-hopping like robots, not humans. It’s the techno, ecstasy generation. Where have all the old melodies gone? The Nepalese folksongs of yore? The song of the Gainey?

“This is globanisation,” they told me.

The grey-eyed visitors from abroad, ‘Quirays’ as we call them in Nepal. Or ‘gora-sahibs’ in Hindustan. The quirays took countless pictures of me, with their cameras, gave handsome tips. A grey-haired elderly didi with spectacles, and teeth in like a horse’s mouth, even gave me a polaroid-picture of me with my sarangi, my mountain violin. Sometimes, I look at my fading picture and wonder how fast time flows. My smile is disappearing, grey hair at the sides, the beginning of baldness. I’ve lost a lot of my molars, at the hands of the Barbier from Muzzafapur in the Indian lowlands; he gave me clove oil to ease my pain, as he pulled out my fouled teeth in an open-air-surgical salon, right near the Tribhuvan Highway.

I still have my voice and my sarangi, and love to sing my repertoire, even though many people sneer and jeer at me, and prefer Bollywood texts from my voice-box. To please their whims, I learned even Bollywood songs, against my will, eavesdropping behind cinema curtains, to please the western tourists and my country’s modern youth, I even learned some English songs.

Oh money, dear money. I’ve become a cultural prostitute. I’ve done my zunft, my trade, an injustice, but I did it to survive. I had to integrate myself and to assimilate in my changing society. Time has not stood still under the shadow of the Himalayas.

One day when I was much younger, I was resting under a Pipal tree which the tourists call Ficus religiosa, when I saw one beautiful tourist girl. I looked and smiled at her. She caressed her hair, And smiled back. For me it was love at first sight. All the while gazing at her, I took out my small sarangi, with bells on my fiddle bow and played a sad Nepali melody composed by Ambar Gurung, which I’d learned in my wanderings from Ilam to Darjeeling. I am the sky and you are the soil; even though we yearn a thousand times, we cannot come together. I was sentimental at that moment. Had tears in my eyes.

When I finished my song, the blonde woman sauntered up to me, and said in a smooth voice, ‘Thank you for the lovely song. Can you tell me what it means?’

I felt a lump on my throat and couldn’t speak for a while. Then, with a sigh, I said, ‘We have this caste system in Nepal. When I first saw you, I imagined you were a fair bahun girl. We aren’t allowed to fall in love with bahunis. It is a forbidden love, a love that can never come true. I love you but I can’t have you.’

‘But you haven’t even tried,’ said the blonde girl coyly.

‘I like your golden hair, Your blue eyes. It’s like watching the sky.’

‘Oh, thank you. Danyabad. She asked: ‘But why do you say: ‘We cannot be together?’
‘We are together now,’ I replied, ‘But the society does not like us gaineys from the lower caste. The bahuns, chettris castes are above us. They look down upon us.’

‘Why do they do that?’ asked the blonde girl.

I spat out: ‘Because they are high-born. We, kamis, damais and sarkis, are dalits. We are the downtrodden, the underdogs of this society in the foothills of the Himalayas.’

‘Who made you what you are?’ she asked.

I told her: ‘The Hindu society is formed this way: once upon a time there was a bahun, and from him came the Varnas. The Vernas are a division of society into four parts. Brahma created the bahuns from his mouth. The chettris, who are warriers came from his shoulder, the traders from his thigh and the servants from the sole of his feet.’

‘What about the poor dalits?’ quipped the blonde foreigner.

‘The dalits fell deeper in the Hindu society, And were not regarded as full members of the human race. We had to do the errands and menial jobs that were forbidden for the higher castes.’

‘Like what?’ she asked.

‘Like disposing dead animals, making leather by skinning hides of dead animals, cleaning toilets and latrines, clearing the sewage canals of the rich, high born Hindus. I am not allowed to touch a bahun, even with my shadow, you know.’

‘What a mean, ugly system,’ she commented, and shook her head. ‘May I touch you?’ she asked impulsively. She was daring and wanted to see how I’d react.

‘You may,’ I replied. She touched my hand, Then my cheeks with her two hands. I found it pleasant and a great honour.

I joined my hands and said sincerely, ‘Dhanyabad.’ I, a dalit, a no-name, a no-human, has been touched by a young, beautiful woman, a quiray tourist, from across the Black Waters we call the Kalapani.'
A wave of happiness and joy swept over me. A miracle had happened. Like a princess kissing a toad, in fairy tales I’d heard. Perhaps Gandhi was right: I was a Child of God, a harijan, and this fair lady an apsara.
She, in her European mind, thought she’d brought the idea of human rights at least to the gainey, this wonderful wandering minstrel, with his quaint fiddle called sarangi.

She said in her melodious voice, ‘In my country all people are free and equal, have the same rights and dignity. All humans have common sense, a conscience, and we ought to meet each other as brothers and sisters.'

I tucked my sarangi in my armpit, Clapped my hands and said:

‘Namaste! That’s nice. Noble thoughts. It works for you here, perhaps. But it won’t work for me,’ Feeling a sense of remorse and nausea sweep over me.

© satisshroff, germany 3/3/2010

* * *

Comments:
thelma: Hi Satis! Nice to see you here at voices, once again great poem hope you stay awhile! australia 11/16/2007 5:41:15 AM
thelma zaracostas: Strong discriptive writing Satis, great poem.

Satis Shroff Grußwort

2014-09-17T23:22:00.001-07:00

Ethnomedicine: HOLISTIC NATURE OF HEALTH & HEALING (Satis Shroff)

2014-09-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

Ethnomedicine: HOLISTIC HEALING (Satis Shroff)

Subtitle: Call for Papers! http://www.labforculture.org/pl/users/site-users/site-members/satis-shroff/76717/128711

Das Jahr 2015 wollen wir dem Thema widmen:

2015 we want to focus to the issue:

2015 queremos dedicarnos a la cuestión:

Die Ganzheitlichkeit von Gesundheit und Heilung – Konzepte von Körper, Geist und Seele, Erde und Kosmos
The holistic nature of health and healing – Concepts of body, mind and spirit, earth and cosmos
La naturaleza holística de la salud y la curación - Los conceptos de cuerpo, mente y espíritu, tierra y cosmos
Deshalb möchten wir heute aufrufen Ihren Beitrag anzumelden für Ihren Text im gleichnamigen Sammelband oder Ihren Vortrag oder Workshop für den kommenden Weltkongress 15.-17. Mai 2015 in München.
We want to invite you cordially to submit your contribution to the book for 2015 or your presentation for the coming World Congress of Holistic Medicine in May 15-17, 2015, in Munich, Germany.
Hoy queremos llamar para registrar su contribución para la misma libro y su presentación para el Congreso Mundial al 15-17 Mayo del 2015 en Munich, Alemania.

Wollen Sie einen Vortrag/Workshop anmelden: Der Call-for-Presentation bis 31.Oktober 2014
Wollen Sie einen Beitrag für das Buch anmelden: Der Call-for-Papers bis 31. Oktober 2014
Erste Informationen zum Programm finden Sie auf Infomationen zum Weltkongress Mai 2015 hier
Informationen zur Anmeldung finden Sie auf Früh-Frühbucher-Anmeldung jetzt sichern!

Bitte melden Sie Ihren Beitrag / Vortrag / Workshop baldmöglichst an mit
Please submit your paper / presentation / workshop with:
Su sumisión de artículos / presentaciones / seminario:
• Ihrem Namen / Name / Nombre
• Institution / institution / Institución
• Titel des Beitrags / Titel of the paper / Título de la contribución
• Zusammenfassung in ca. 10 Sätzen / Abstract in about 10 sentences / Resumen max. 10 Frases
• 3 Bilder / 3 pictures / 3 Fotos
• 10 Schlagwörter / 10 keywords / 10 topicos clave
• Adresse, Tel / Fax, email / dirección postal, Tel / Fax, Correo Electrónico

Einsendeschluss für Beitragsanmeldungen ist 31.10.2014
Papers are welcome until October 31, 2014
Plazo de envio de solicitudes de los artículos hasta el 31 de Octubre del 2014

Einsendeschluss für Vortrags-+Workshop-Anmeldungen ist 31.10.2014
Submission for Presentations until October 31, 2014
Plazo de envio de solicitudes de los presentaciones hasta el 31 de Octubre del 2014

Wir wollen den Bogen schlagen von den Wurzeln des Heilens in der Ethnomedizin in indigenen Gesellschaften und alten Kulturen bis zur Ganzheitsmedizin, beginnend mit der ethnologischen Forschung und Wissenschaft der Heiler, Schamanen, Medizinmänner, Zauberer und Priester, der Izangomas, Curanderos, Magier und Medien aus den Kontinenten unserer Erde. Auf diesen Erkenntnissen und den neuesten Erkenntnissen unserer Medizin-Forschung und Psychologie entsteht die Ganzheitsmedizin. Sie bezeichnet Konzepte und Methoden im Bereich der Medizin, die die Natur und den kranken Menschen in umfassenden Zusammenhängen betrachten und behandeln. Hinter dem Begriff „ganzheitlich“ stehen unterschiedliche naturphilosophische, religiöse, mystische, esoterische, systemtheoretische, psychosoziale, ökologische oder politische Ideen. Die neueren Konzepte sehen den Menschen als ein strukturiertes, nach außen offenes System, dessen Teile in wechselseitiger Beziehung zueinander, zur Gesamtheit und zur Außenwelt stehen. Faktoren, die hier einwirken, seien die eigene Person verstanden als Einheit von Körper, Seele und Geist, die soziale Umwelt, die natürliche Umwelt, die künstliche Umwelt (Technik und Wissenschaften) und Übersinnliches.

We want to discuss the whole field from the roots of healing traditions in indigenes societies to holistic health concepts in modern therapeutical practice. Starting with the ethnological research and knowledge of healers, shamans, medicine men, magicians and priests, izangomas, curanderos, and magician from all continents of our world. On these findings and the latest results of our medical research and psychology, a concept of holistic medicine arises. It describes concepts and methods in the therapeutical field that consider human being in holistic contexts. The term "holistic" nature are different philosophical, religious, mystical, esoteric, systems theory, psychosocial, environmental, or political ideas. The newer concepts consider men as a structured, open system whose parts are mutually interrelated to the outside world and whole system. Factors which influence here, one's own person are to be understood as a unity of body, soul and spirit, the social environment, the natural environment, the artificial environment (technical and science) and paranormal phenomenas.

Queremos cubrir el area de las raíces de la curación en la medicina etno en las sociedades indígenas y las culturas antiguas hasta la medicina holística; comenzando con la investigación etnológica y la ciencia de los curanderos, chamanes,magos y sacerdotes, curanderos y magos de los continentes de nuestro planeta. De estos resultados y los últimos hallazgos de nuestra investigación médica y psicologica, surge la medicina holística. En ella se describen los conceptos y métodos en el campo de la medicina que consideran y tratan a la naturaleza y a las personas enfermas en contextos amplios. Bajo el término naturaleza "holística" estan diferentes ideas en las areas filosófica, religiosa, mística, esotérica, teoría de sistemas, psicosociales, ambientales e ideas políticas. Los conceptos más nuevos ven a la gente como una estructura, abierta al sistema y cuyas partes estan mutuamente relacionados entre sí, en su totalidad y con el mundo exterior. Factores que influyen a la propia persona han de entenderse como una unidad de cuerpo, alma y espíritu, el entorno social, el medio ambiente natural, el entorno artificial (la tecnología y la ciencia) y los fenómenos psíquicos.

Der Weltkongress der Ganzheitsmedizin 15.-17. Mai 2015

Der Kongress steht wieder unter der Schirmherrschaft der Landeshauptstandt München. Aus dem Grußwort der Landeshauptstadt München: Ethnomedizin liegt voll im Trend – in jedem Volkshochschulprogramm finden sich Kurse über Yoga, Qigong oder Ayurveda. Doch der Ansatz, die Therapieformen anderer Kulturen – meist Naturvölker - mit der Schulmedizin zu kombinieren oder die Schulmedizin durch diese alternativen Heilmethoden zu ersetzen, ist weit mehr als eine Modeerscheinung.

In München, wo Menschen aus 180 Nationen leben, ist die Wissenschaft der Ethnomedizin eine wichtige Quelle, um den Bürgern verschiedener kultureller Herkunft eine funktionierende Gesundheitsversorgung anbieten zu können. Wir haben längst erkannt, dass es nicht nur die Sprachhürde ist, die die interkulturelle Kommunikation im medizinischen Bereich schwierig macht, sondern eben auch die kulturell unterschiedlichen Vorstellungen von Krankheit und Heilung.

Aber auch die einheimische Bevölkerung profitiert von den Erfahrungen aus anderen Kulturen. So wird die sehr technische Herangehensweise an Krankheiten in unserer westlichen Schulmedizin mehr und mehr ergänzt durch einen eher ganzheitlichen Ansatz, der das Befinden von „Leib und Seele“ berücksichtigt, so wie ihn fast alle traditionellen Therapiemethoden aufweisen.

Für die globale nachhaltige Entwicklung hat die Ethnomedizin ebenfalls eine wichtige Funktion: Sie verdeutlicht, dass der Schutz der Kultur und der Lebensräume indigener Völker auch in unserem Interesse liegt und dass etwa mit jeder Regenwaldzerstörung wichtiges Wissen und wertvolle Heilstoffe verschwinden. Und sie führt vor, wie Globalisierung und internationale Zusammenarbeit funktionieren sollte: auf gleicher Augenhöhe, ohne westliche Überheblichkeit oder neo-kolonialistische Absichten.

Daher habe ich gerne die Schirmherrschaft über die Weltkonferenz der Ethnotherapien in München übernommen. Das Programm verspricht interessante Referenten und spannende Workshops und ich hoffe, dass viele Besucher das Angebot wahrnehmen werden.

Congress is again under the auspices of Landeshauptstandt Munich. From the greeting of the City of Munich: Experiences from other cultures are important for a holistic medicine system. So the technical approach to diseases in our western medicine is more and more complemented by a more holistic approach that takes into account the condition of "body and soul", as having in almost all traditional therapy methods. The program promises interesting speakers and exciting workshops and I hope that many visitors will perceive the offer.

El Congreso está de nuevo bajo los auspicios de Landeshauptstandt Munich. Desde el saludo de la Ciudad de Munich: Las experiencias de otras culturas son importantes para la medicina holística. Así que el enfoque muy técnico es a las enfermedades en nuestra medicina occidental cada vez más complementado por un enfoque más global que tenga en cuenta la condición de "cuerpo y alma", por lo que tiene de él como casi todos los métodos tradicionales de terapia. El programa promete interesantes ponentes y talleres interesantes y espero que muchos visitantes percibirán la oferta.

Der Weltkongress der Ganzheitsmedizin 15-17. Mai 2015 findet statt in den Räumlichkeiten der Alten Kongresshalle München. Die Alte Kongresshalle München ist ein denkmalgeschütztes Gebäude im Herzen von München.
The World Congress of Holistic Medicine 15 to 17 May 2015 at the premises of the Old Congress Hall in Munich. The Old Congress Hall in Munich, is a protected listed building in the heart of Munich.
El Congreso Mundial de Medicina Holística el 15-17 de Mayo del 2015 se llevará a cabo en las instalaciones del Congreso Old Hall Munich. El Alte Kongresshalle de Munich es un edificio catalogado en el corazón de Munich.
Weltkongress der Ganzheitsmedizin 15-17 Mai 2015 • Congreso Mundial de Medicina Holística

Das Buchprojekt 2015:

Die Ganzheitlichkeit von Gesundheit und Heilung – Konzepte von Körper, Geist und Seele, Erde und Kosmos
The holistic nature of health and healing – Concepts of body, mind and spirit, earth and cosmos
La naturaleza holística de la salud y la curación - Los conceptos de cuerpo, mente y espíritu, tierra y cosmos
Deutsch mit englischen Abstracts, erscheint bei BoD im Herbst 2015, ca 700 Seiten, ca 40 Autoren, herausgegeben im Auftrag von INFOMED Institut für Ganzheitsmedizin e.V. mit Titelschutz vom Börsenblatt des Deutschen Buchhandels
German languange with English abstracts, published by BoD in the fall of 2015, about 700 pages, round 40 authors, edited on behalf of INFOMED Institute of Holistic Medicine eV with title protection from the Börsenblatt of the German Book Trade institution.
Alemán con resúmenes en inglés, publicado por BoD en el otoño de 2015, cerca de 700 páginas, aproximadamente 40 autores, editado en nombre de INFOMED Instituto de Medicina Holística eV con la protección del título del periódico financiero de la Libreros Alemanes.

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Ethnomedicine: Traditional & School Medicine in Nepal (Satis Shroff, Freiburg)

In the 80,000 hamlets of Nepal, there are over 400,000 shamans and traditional healers, who have to some extent acquired the basics of modern medical treatment through the Health Ministry.

The old tradition of the dhami-jhakri in which the fate of a person can be influenced by appeasing the spirits is still intact in Nepal. A séance provides the ill person a communication possibility depending the nature of the illness. For the spirits (Geister), be they rough or fine in their manifestations, belong to the everyday lives of the tradition-conscious Nepalese and many other ethnic-peoples in the northern and southern hemispheres of this globe.

Disease and conformity: The traditional healers of Nepal are not only versed in the nature of illnesses caused by spirits, demons, male and female witches, Gods and Goddesses, but also diseases which are in conformity with epidemiological studies and results. The usual diseases that are mentioned by traditional healers are: diarrhoea, coughs, pneumonia, heart-maladies, abdominal pain, pain in the joints and other less specific symptoms like: headaches, body pain, nausea etc. Other commonly mentioned diseases are: vomiting, worm-infections, pickles and boils, carbuncles, cases of goitre in the hills (think of the Himalaya salt ads in the west), different skin problems, tuberculosis, problems of the urinary tract and menstrual disorders and anomalies.

In the past the shamans were not allowed to get rich through healing, and the codex and ethics of the healers in the Himalayas were strict. Today, the Nepalese shaman blesses a life-saving electrolyte solution for the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery. The shaman has become innovative in Nepal, and makes himself or herself socially useful by ritualising and selling anti-baby pills for a small financial commission. This way, he or she helps Family planning, which is supported by the government. The Nepalese government has raised the status of the shaman by bestowing an official title upon him: Practitioner of Traditional Medicine, with the condition that he or she take part in medical and hygiene courses. ‘Traditional’ sounds better than ‘complementary’ because shaman has a long tradition in Siberia, Nepal and others parts of the world.

Sociological view: The position of the shamans in the hamlets of Nepal is getting a certain amount of recognition and importance, because he or she gathers new experiences and acquires modern methods of healing, and in this way, the shaman uses a combination of traditional and modern medicine. From a sociological point of view, magico-religious healing plays a central and positive role. The magic and faith in the healing powers of the shaman helps to strengthen the group, tribe or caste by defining a common foe, and in identifying the evil, invisible spirit that has been causing illness. In this way, it is possible to control one’s own environment and the immediate neighbourhood and to influence it. Moreover, the healing ritual of the shaman late into the night helps to sublime difficult somatic Triebansprucheand to channel them in a socially acceptable and legal way, without being stigmatised in the society as being abnormal or an ill-person.

When you boil down the matter between traditional and modern medicine, belief is in the eye of the beholder. If modern medicine doesn’t help, complementary (traditional) therapy seems to do so, for instance in the case of people struggling with long-term pain. Whereas the physician is concerned with infections caused by fungi, bacteria and viruses, Nepal’s Dhamis, Bijuwas, Bong-things and shamans are concerned with spirits, demons, Gods and Goddesses and other invisible powers between Swarga (Heaven) and Prithvi (Earth). The people in Nepal still have faith in the practitioners of traditional medicine, despite the danger of being stigmatised as being superstitious, anachronistic and backward. The government has found out that even though Health Post have been set up, the people living in the foothills of the Himalayas (Mittelgebirge) still prefer ritual therapies from their shamans. The medically-trained traditional healers can reach millions of Nepalese through a well-developed strategy. Most of the Dhamis-Jhakris have shown that they are open to new skills in health, population and family-oriented basic knowledge. Moreover they were (and are) ready to give their acquired modern knowledge to their respective communities in their hamlets.

Humane and empathetic: The traditional healer not only cures with modern pharmaceuticals, but he or she imparts a cultural note to the therapy by blessing the medicine in a ritual through the recitation of mantras or prayer, which is indeed soft and humane, and the patient becomes a part of the ceremony, and isn’t left alone like in a hospital. Traditional (complementary) medicine has come to stay. It was there all the time in different continents, and is an expression of care, humane-treatment, softness (Sanftemedizin), dignity, respect and empathy for the ill person. These are values that have dwindled in modern medicine’s pursuit for rationalism, validity and science. Every time a patient enters a physician’s clinic, he or she feels uneasy that the clock is ticking away to his or her disadvantage. Time is money. More patients means more money for the physician and the health insurance company. That leaves little time and hope for the hapless, impatient patient.

The Illness Journey: Among the Tamangs, Magars, Rais, Limbus, Gurungs and other Nepalese living in the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal, and surrounding states like Sikkim, Bhutan and Darjeeling, the patient is not left alone to suffer from his illness. The village shaman (jhakri, bijuwa, dhami, bon-thing) is beckoned for treatment through a séance and the villager society supports him or her by their valuable presence and gives the ill person a we-are-with-you feeling. You-are-not-alone is the on-going message which gets across and is important in healing prychic and other disorders.

It must, of course, be taken into consideration that there are differences in people’s beliefs regarding health and illness-coping strategies, which do differ between ethnicities and individuals and have direct effect on other issues such as: the amount of support, educational-level, information required. Social support in the form of fellow villagers. Relatives, nucleus family should be appreciated and embraced for a holistic healing. Such support can help people to regain some control over their lives at difficult and stressful times.

The value of hope: The value of hope, which is an important resource in different cultures and among traditional healers, is lost in modern medicine. What was Florence Nightingale doing with her candle-light in the bedsides and stretchers of her wounded soldiers in the Crimean War? Was she giving them antibiotics, anti-viral drugs? No, she was giving these forlorn souls a precious medicine named hope. But is traditional medicine entirely based on hope? Certainly not. Traditional Chinese medicine, Tibetan medicine, and the Indian subcontinent’s Ayurvedic medicine, Unani medicine deploy among others pharmaceuticals botanical, zoological and mineral extracts to cure the illnesses of millions of people since time immemorial. So does modern medicine, which enjoys perfect packaging and marketing and ads through the media. It’s the catchy, convincing-sounding ad that makes people rush to the apothecary to buy the pharmaceutical product that they’ve seen in TV or have heard about from their relatives and friends, as is mostly the case in the layman’s aetiology.

Modern medicine is a science because its experiments can be reproduced, it is systematic and can adjust itself in combating new bacteria, viruses and other disease causing microbes. But traditional or complementary medicine is also learning new methods of treatment and hospital hygiene.

Alone in 1980 Dr. Badri Raj Pandey et al trained more than 1000 traditional healers (Dhamis-Jhakris) in Nepal under the Family Planning and Maternal Child Health Project (MCHP). Since there are more traditional healers than physicians and paramedical personnel, the traditional healers are an important resource for the family planning and health organisations in Nepal. This study has revealed that the traditional healers play an important role. They have a functional network and they aren’t s so expensive as medical doctors. The traditional healers are always ready to visit their patients, even though it means walking through the better part of the day to treat the patients. Physicians are reluctant to walk four to six hours to their impoverished patients, and they’d rather be paid in currency notes rather than with eggs, vegetables, or a little red rooster.

Shaman as Resource & Ally: School medicine has to win the traditional healer as a resource and ally, and not as concurrence, for the common aim of traditional and modern medicine is to free the individual from his or her illness, and provide an efficient and honest cure. The wellness and recuperation of the patient should be the common goal and not rivalry. This target was fixed by the Nepalese government and the shamans are now treated with respect, asked for assistance and requested to take part in therapy-workshops and medical training projects. Such workshops were held in: Kanchanpur, Chandani municipality, Mahendranagar, Syangja and Ilam in the past. It was explained that the project as such didn’t have any intention to influence the healing methods or beliefs of the tribal shamans. The participating shamans learned how to motivate the people of their respective communities, family-planning and other health-promoting measures.

Causality and logic: The shaman can differentiate the principle of causality and logical thinking and communication. The shaman manifests religion and the art of healing as a coexistence form, and is open for new healing methods if it helps the patient. Likewise, there is a trend on the part of physicians and psychotherapists to take on the shaman’s healing methods. And to this end, there are universities that are training therapists through the use of modern and traditional medicine by inviting and bringing together traditional healers and modern therapists, medical and nursing students and physicians.

Intercultural Therapist: Education as Intercultural therapist for 1269 Euro: Two German two universities in Heidelberg and Munich have established themselves in the service of traditional and modern medicine by offering workshops and seminars by bringing practitioners of Traditional and Modern Medicine together. It is a marriage between the two systems of medicine.

An advanced international, intercultural and interdisplinary education as a therapist in Medican Anthropology is being made possible from 12th till 19thOctober 2007 by the Institute of Ethnomedizin and it costs 1269 euros. You can join the program at any stage. It is a global path for health and healing and is organised by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. The program makes it possible for western therapists to take part in a lively dialogue with authentic indigenous healers, shamans, and teachers from all over the world.

For those interested in ritual healing methods in the world a seminar was organized by the Südasien Institute, Heidelberg, Dept. of Ethnology from 12.-16.March 2007. The program was available under: www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/abt/ETHNO/forschung/springschool.htm.

How does ritual healing work and what can we learn from it? Can and should ritual healing be publicly integrated in the Heath Services? These were the themes of the one-week seminar which showed the detailed and extensive field research among the ritual healers in Tibet, India, Indonesia, Kenia and Latin America.

Nepalese Shamans: Another program organized this time by the Institute for Ethnology has a number of well-known Nepalese shamans like Maile Ngema Lama 50, was beckoned by the ancestors of the shamans at the age of 8 and was initiated into the art of healing. She grew up in a Tamang hamlet which belonged to the Tibetan language group and began to practice shamanism at the age of 11. Today she's 50 years old and is well-known in Nepal for her healing profession.

Mohan Rai, director of Shaman Studies and Research Centre in Kathmandu, is a central personality of shaman culture in the Himalayas. He is 68, comes from the border area of Nepal-Bhutan and belongs to the Mongol folk of Rai and Kirati. His father was a famous Kirati Schaman. He speaks more than ten languages.

Parvati Rai, Nepal, a female Kirati Schaman and practices since 45 years. Parvati worships Nature, like all Kirat-folk. Among the Kirats the shaman plays a central role in the society from birth till death. Parvati Rai received her initiation when she was nine years old and became a shaman at the age of 16, lives in Kathmandu and works as a shaman for the Kirat Society and supports the Kirat Foundation through her work. She married at the age of 15 and has four kids.
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About the Author: Satis Shroff is a writer and poet based in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) who also writes on ethno-medical, culture-ethnological themes. He writes regularly for The American Chronicle (www.Americanchronicle.com/authors/view/1207), and is a contributing writer on www.boloji.com, www.wordpress.com and also Blogspot.. He has studied Zoology and Botany in Nepal, Medicine and Social Science in Germany and Creative Writing in Freiburg and Manchester. He describes himself as a mediator between western and eastern cultures and sees his future as a writer and poet. Satis Shroff was awarded the erman Academic Exchange Prize. He is a lecturer in Basle (Switzerland), Freiburg (Akad .f. med. Berufe, VHS-Freiburg).
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/satisle
Http://www.AuthorsDen.com/satisshroff
http://blogs.boloji.com/satisshroff
http://kkv-kappel.de/index.php?option=com_content&;view=article&id=53&Itemid=75
http://www.labforculture.org/de/users/site-users/site-members/satis-shroff,
wwwhttp://.satisshroff.Gather.com.
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NEPAL UNITES - GERMANY: Interview with Nepali of the week: Satis Shroff (L...

2014-09-08T06:12:00.001-07:00

NEPAL UNITES - GERMANY: Interview with Nepali of the week: Satis Shroff (L...: 1.Name- Satis Shroff 2.Profession- Lecturer at University of Freiburg 3.Home town- Ghopa, Dharan 4.Education: a. GCE ‘Ordinary’ Level, Darj...

Welcome to the Town of Gässle & Bächle (Satis Shroff)

2014-09-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

(The Shepard and his sheep by Otmar Kraus)

Welcome to the Town of Gässle & Bächle (Satis Shroff)

Freiburg is a town of Gässle and Bächle be cause it has narrow lanes and a stream that snakes along this olde university town. And in the first week of September (4-6.09.2014) we had 'Art in the Upper Old City.' This year the open air exhibition was for the 34th time.

Oberlinden Open Air Art Show (c)satisshroff

The artists, sculptors and artisans came from Germany and the European countries to show their works of ceramic, graphic arts, sculptures, art, jewellery, silk paintings and photography. The official inauguration was on 4.09.2014 at 11:30 and Ulrich von Kirchbach, Freiburg's mayor for Culture opened the exhibition.

I met Thomas Weiterschau, who's from Höchst, and he said he'd participated in the Art of Eden, art & design in the Botanical Garden of the Technical University in Darmstadt. Among his most famous wooden sculptures that caught my attention were the faces of females with very fine features.

In the Herrenstrasse I met Otmar Kraus, who actually lives in the Buggingerstrasse in Freiburg, and he showed me a selection of his oil paintings. 'You know, I just paint my pictures while standing. I go around to a landscape and if I like it, I just start to paint,' said Otmar. And he an impressive collection done over the years.

Dorit Riley (doritart@live.com) who possesses an Art Studio, has colourful painting reminiscent of art that you find in the LP covers of the Beatles from the 60's.

I then came across Klaus Polkowski and bought a Ladhak Lamayuru taken in 2003 during a visit to the Himalayas. Polkowski is known for his pictures of Himalayan motifs. He calls his work the Art of Black & White and his work is only in schwarz-weiss (WWW.klaus-polkowski.de).

I chanced to see the works of Oliviero Masi at the Gallery Schindel in Oberlinden (www.galerie-schindel.de). Oliviero's works have a lot of light in his Italian landscapes with water surfaces and porches painted in white and violet, bushes and trees in rich lush green foliage. His motifs are mostly the Tosca and the Lombardy and he has a virtuosity in his brush technique. We know such such paintings since the Renaissance and the Italian landscapes have been done by artists throughout the different epochs. The scenes have a magical effect on the observer and make your heart yearn for the Mediterranean sunshine. Oliviero Masi was born in 1948 in Busto Arsizo near Mailand (Italy).

Ukraine Commentary: Secret Funerals & Motherly Measures (Satis Shroff)

2014-08-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

Commentary: SECRET FUNERALS & MOTHERLY MEASURES (Satis Shroff)

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a one time Russian dissident, made a statement recently:' We are fighting the Ukraine, for real. We are sending soldiers and equipment.' Secret funerals for the fallen Russian soldiers are back again, like in the days of the Russian war in Afghanistan in the '80s. Mothers have started getting worried and have started lamenting the dead Russian 'volunteers,' like in Chechnya in the '90s.

President Putin has fooled Russian mothers for sometime by issuing false death certificates of soldiers stating they'd died on duty elsewhere in Russia. 300 injured and 100 dead Russian soldiers can't be explained away as mishaps within the country, whereas in reality there were POWs in the Ukraine. Russian mothers have access to social media sites these days, and if the Russian government keeps on telling tall tales about the whereabouts of their sons, why, the Russian Moms will take motherly measures and come to the Ukraine to get their captures sons and also acquire first-hand information from the Ukranians. That would make the mothers of the involved nations unite.

President Putin is of the opinion that East and South Ukraine belong to the phalanx of Russia. The annexation of Crimea was jsut a start. Why die Bolsheviks handed over the territory, conquered by Katherina the Great, to the Ukraine in 1917 remains a puzzle to the Russian President.

After a long policy of appeasement towards Moscow, the reluctant sanctions the EU, and Nato in particular, the west seems to be reacting albeit half-heartedly to the Russian aggression.

The movement of refugees on both Russian and Ukranian sides is another tragical story that has been repeated in the annals of history ever since man started waging war, instead of settling conflicts through peaceful means. The Ukranian conflict has made 190,000 people seek refuge in Russia, 15,000 in Poland and 12,000 in White Russia. There is a political and cultural conflict of loyalty in this country between the Pro-Russian and the Ukranian population. When China moved into Tibet, no one helped the spiritual and temporal ruler of Tibet, because he followed like the Maharaja of Nepal, a policy of deliberate isolation, and the only outlet was to cross the Himalayas to reach Dharamsala and apply for asylum in India. When the British left India, Pakistan was created with a great deal of bloodshed. Hindus were obliged to leave Pakistan, and Pakistanis had to leave India amid an atmosphere of hatred and brutality. A similar scenario has unfurled between the people of the Dombass area and Russian separatists. The Berlin Ministry of External Affairs mentioned that 200,000 people became refugees due to the Ukranian conflict.

According to the UNO the number of dead in the Ukraine has risen to 2,800. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the Pro-Russian separatists had started a reign of terror with murder, torture and kidnapping of Ukranians. Sources said that more Russian volunteers were involved in the Ukranian battles.

The foreign ministers of 28 European states denounced the Russian invasion into Ukraine. The German government spoke for the first time, in a carefully worded text, of a 'military intervention.' Bringing President Putin to reason is like the mice trying to bell the cat. According to Nato sources, there are more than 1000 Russian soldiers fighting in the Ukraine. The ex-President of the EU commission Jose Manuel Baroso demanded the Russian government to end the support of the separatists in East Ukraine with weapons and personnel, which will remain a moot demand, because the crisis is getting worse. If the escalation is not stopped it will lead to a point of no return. Russia and the EU are in a crisis now. Will the Nato and EU send troops and weapons to the Ukraine? That is the question and President Putin isn't bluffing. He has Pro-Russian plans and wants to defend the prospective Russian enclaves that were lost after the Soviet Union broke down. The Russian rebellion in Donetsk and Luhansk in April and the annexation of the Ukranian peninsula of Crimea was the beginning.

President Obama held Moscow responsible for aggression but refrained from a military intervention. He opined that there were ways to increase pressure against Russia, mainly through sanctions.

One of the sanctions is that the EU has made it difficult for Russian banks to reach the EU finance markets. Sanctions were laid and the export of hi-tech was forbidden and a ban on machines that are used in oil-drillings and excavation. The foreign minister of Estland went even further and demanded sanctions that really hurt.

Steinmeier (SPD), Germany's foreign minister, avoided the word 'invasion' in Mailand, Italy during the 28-EU-state-conference. He put it this way:'The dangerous situation in Eastern Ukraine has taken on a new dimension. A dialogue between the Ukraine and Russia is imperative.' In this context, it might be mentioned that President Obama has also avoided the word 'invasion' and said explicitly that the USA won't be taking any military measures to solve the Ukranian problem.

However, Samantha Power, the US ambassador , was direct and avoided the diplomatic circumlocution used by President Obama. Addressing the Security Council Ms. Power said that 'Russia was lying. The mask will come down. What Russia has been doing in the Ukraine is a threat for peace and the security of us all.' In Europe we'd call this lady 'Mutter Courage.' She has mum and calls a spade a spade.

The Nato has demanded an end to the Russian military actions in the Ukraine. Till now Moscow's Sergei Lawrow (foreign minister) said they were hearing about such speculations not for the first time. The Kreml chief Vladimir Putin compared the action of of the Ukranian government with that of the Wehrmacht, and went on to describe the offensive of the separatists as a success. President Putin went on to say,'The tactics of the government troops remind me of the faschist German troops in the Soviet Union in World War II.' In Putin's version, the Crimea was 'not annected in Spring but was protected. If Russia hadn't overtaken the control, it would have been the way it is in West Ukraine.'

Is it easy for the Ukraine to be a Nato-member? The answer is no, because there is a judicial hinderance to this move in the form of a law since 2010 which forbids the Ukraine to join any military pact. It is obliged to maintain a block-free status. On the other hand, the Financial Times mentions that a new intervention with 10,000 Nato soldiers should be sent t, under British leadership, to East Europe as a reaction against the Russian-Ukranian politics. The Nato troops are expected to come from Britain, Baltic states, Norway, Denmark and Canada. It is hoped that a strengthening of the eastern flank of the Nato will serve as a deterrent to Russia's aggressive politics.

Russia's brazen moves in the Ukraine is due to the fact that it has little to fear, except a few sanctions, more costs and little consequences.

Until now President Putin has provoked with Pro-Russian rhetoric and insists on sending help convoys. The Russian President appealed to the separatists to open a corridor so that the Ukranian military can pass through. He compares the fight of the Pro-Russian separatists with the situation of the Soviet Army against Hitler's Germany and speaks of a Land-army in New Russia (Noworossija). This new terminology alone denotes a region that goes beyond the battle area at the moment. The Russian Ministry of External Affairs doubst the authenticity of the video evidence showing Russian troop movement into Eastern Ukraine.

President Putin has praised the Pro-Russian separatists as the 'defender of Neo-Russia.' This expression dates back to the times of the Tsar, when the Russian Army conquered the territory in the 18^th century from Osmania. And President Putin has decided that Neo-Russia should come into existence. Moscow wants more than a corridor to Crimea.

Satis Shroff: A WRITER'S JOURNEY

2014-08-30T03:22:00.000-07:00

Satis Shroff

Satis Shroff is a Nepalese writer who writes in English since 1972. Shroff is a lecturer of creative writing, as well as a long-standing journalist and writer who started his writing career in 1972 with The Rising Nepal, a daily from Kathmandu. He is also a lecturer at the Akademie für medizinische Berufe (Uniklinik Freiburg), VHS-Freiburg and VHS-Dreisamtal in Kirchzarten.

He writes fiction and non-fiction since his days in Kathmandu as a journalist in 1972. He wrote a column Science Spot on the wildlife conservation, mountaineering, cultural themes as well as literature, development and tourism. He also wrote commentaries for the External Service of Radio Nepal, in addition to freelancing for The Christian Science Monitor and other newspapers in the USA in the early seventies.

He was born in Nepal and did his schooling in a British Public School in Darjeeling. He went to Kathmandu, Nepal for further studies and did his Intermediate in Science (ISc) from Amrit Science College and his Bachelor's Degree (B Sc) from Tri Chandra College in the subjects Zoology, Botany and Geology. He came to Freiburg, Germany and studied Medicine (Albert-Ludwigs University) and thereafter Sozial Sciences (FH). He did Creative Writing under Fulbright Professor Bruce Dobler at the Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg and in Manchester (UK). Bruce Dobler, Associate Professor in Creative Writing MFA, University of Iowa says “Satis Shroff writes with intelligence, wit and grace.”

He lives with his Alemannic wife and children in Freiburg-Kappel, Baden-Württember, Germany. He has also worked in Basle at the Klara and Bethesda Nursing Schools where he taught Swiss nurses, before starting to work as a lecturer at the Academy of Medical Professions (Uniklinik Freiburg) and the VHS-Freiburg and VHS-Kirchzarten in addition to running Creative Writing Workshops at the University of Education (Freiburg-Littenweiler).

Literature is translating emotions and facts from truth to fiction. It’s like a borderline syndrome; between sanity and insanity there’s fine dividing line. Similarly, non-fiction can be transformed into fiction. Virginia Woolf said, ‘There must be great freedom from reality.’ For Goethe, art was art because it was not nature. That’s what I like about fiction, this ability of transforming mundane things in life to jewels through the use of words. Rilke mentioned one ought to describe beauty with inner, quiet, humble righteousness. Approach nature and show what you see and experienced, loved and lost.(Satis Shroff)

His Zeitgeistlyrik portrays the current and former situation in Nepal, which Shroff views largely though the eyes of contemporary German realist fiction. According to a German poet Sandra Sigel “Satis Shroff writes political poetry, about the war in Nepal, the sad fate of the Nepalese people, the emergence of neo-fascism in Germany. His bicultural perspective makes his poems rich, full of awe and at the same time heartbreakingly sad. In writing ‘home,’ he not only returns to his country of origin time and again, he also carries the fate of his people to readers in the West, and his task of writing thus is also a very important one in political terms. His true gift is to invent Nepalese metaphors and make them accessible to the West through his poetry.”

Another German writer Alice Grünfelder from Unionsverlag/ Limmat Verlag, Zürich says “The narration of Satis Shroff in ‘Through Nepalese Eyes’ are fascinating and gives us the chance to see our world with new eyes.” Heide Poudel says in WritersDen “Brilliant, I enjoyed your poems thoroughly. I can hear the underlying German and Nepali thoughts within your English language. The strictness of the German form mixed with the vividness of your Nepalese mother tongue. An interesting mix. Nepal is a jewel on the Earth’s surface, her majesty and charm should be protected, and yet exposed with dignity through words. You do your country justice and I find your bicultural understanding so unique and a marvel to read.”

US writer Susan Marie writes “Satis Shroff's writing is refined – pure undistilled. The manner in which he writes takes the reader right along with him. Extremely vivid and just enough and the irony of the music. Beautiful prosaic thought and astounding writing.
'Your muscles flex, the nerves flatter, the heart gallops,
As you feel how puny you are,
Among all those incessant and powerful waves.'

Magazine and newspaper contributions

Writing style and technique

Social Engagement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLZpdMgt3NA Satis Shroff Grußwort
https://www.facebook.com/pages/MGV-Liederkranz-Freiburg-Kappel-eV/140662769336590
"Ich war noch niemals in New York"Festliches Weihnachtskonzert am 26.12.2013
MGV "Liederkranz" Freiburg Kappel e.V.

Ehrung eines aktiven MGV Sängers in Freiburg

Satis Shroff: Ehrung für 20-jähriges Engagement für Flüchtlinge und Migranten

Der Burgermeister für Kultur, Jugend, Soziales und Integration Ulrich von Kirchbach hat den aus Nepal stammenden Dozent, Dichter, Autor und Sänger (MGV Kappel) Satis Shroff in eine Festveranstaltung in Freiburg geehrt. Der ehemalige DAAD Preisträger wurde geehrt als „besondere Anerkennung für vorbildliches bürgerschaftliches Engagement bei der langjährigen Unterstützung und Begleitung von Flüchtlingen und als Vorstandsmitglied im Männergesangverein „Liederkranz“ Kappel e.V.

Satis Shroff lebt in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) und schreibt über ökologische, medizin-ethnologische und kultur-ethnische Themen. Er hat Zoologie und Botanik in Nepal, Social Sciences und Medizin in Freiburg und Creative Writing in Freiburg und UK studiert. Da Literatur eine der wichtigsten Wege ist, um die Kulturen kennenzulernen, hat er sein Leben dem Kreatives Schreiben gewidmet. Er arbeitet als Dozent in Basel (Schweiz) und in Deutschland an der Akademie für medizinische Berufe (Uniklinik Freiburg). Ihm wurde der DAAD-Preis verliehen.

Kultur kann Einblicke in fremde Lebenswelten geben, Grenzen überwinden, neue Horizonte öffnen und Kreativität fördern. In diesem Sinne sagte Herr Shroff in seine prägnante Dankeschönrede: „Ich werde Migranten raten in einem Deutschen Verein Mitglied zu werden, da es eine schöne Miteinander ist. Ich bin Mitglied beim Männergesangverein Kappel und fühle mich Sauwohl und gut aufgenommen von allen. Eine bessere weg zur Integration kann ich mir nicht vorstellen.“

Herr Shroff betreute Kinder- und Kriegsflüchtlinge aus Bosnien, Mazedonien und Kosovo-Albanien, begleitete sie durch die Schule und viele haben einen guten Schulabschluss geschafft.

Als Kontaktperson für den DAAD und der Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung arbeitete Herr Shroff zusammen mit dem Akademischen Auslandsamt in Freiburg und betreute StudentInnen aus Nepal, Indien und England. Er hat diese StudentInnen begleitet und hält heute noch guten Kontakt zu diesen Akademikern.

Herr Shroff spricht fließend Englisch, Deutsch, Nepali, Hindi und Urdu und arbeitete ehrenamtlich als Dolmetscher beim Amtsgericht Freiburg. Er unterstützt sie wo er kann, denn diese Migranten sind hilflos in der Fremde und es gibt kulturelle, soziale und sprachliche Barrieren. Ein fremdes Verwaltungssystem und ein ungewohntes Gesetzgebung überfördert diese Menschen, und hier hilft Herr Shroff.

Satis Shroff, ehrenamtlicher Dolmetscher des Amtsgerichtes Freiburg, wird für 20-jähriges Engagement für Flüchtlinge und Migranten geehrt. Seit seiner Einwanderung 1975 dolmetschte er in Freiburger Flüchtlingsheimen sowie für das Sozial- und Jugendamt. In den 1990er Jahren unterstützte er durch Hausaufgabenbetreuung Flüchtlingskinder und deren Familien aus dem Kosovo und auch Flüchtlinge aus Nepal, Indien und Pakistan, da er Nepali, Hindi und Urdu spricht. Derzeit ist er als 1.Vorsitzender von Männergesangverein-Kappel “Liederkranz” und macht ein Benefizkonzert für die Flüchlingskinder von Syrien (Unicef) in der Kirchzartener Kurhaus am 20. März 2014.

Für die Stadt Ilmenau übersetzte Herr Shroff Goethes Gedicht „Wandrers Nachtlied“ in Nepali. Er übersetzt Nepali Literature ins Deutsche. Sein Gedichtband „Im Schatten des Himalaya“ ist bei www.Lulu.com/spotlight/satisle erschienen.

Bevor er nach Deutschland kam „for further studies“ wie es so schön auf Englisch heißt, hat er in Katmandu als Features Redakteur in The Rising Nepal gearbeitet und schrieb eine naturwissenschaftliche Kolumne, und Leitartikel für Radio Nepal verfasst.

Er hat sechs Bücher geschrieben: Im Schatten des Himalaya (Gedichte und Prosa), Through Nepalese Eyes (Reisebericht), Katmandu, Katmandu (Gedichte und Prosa mit Nepali Autoren) Glacial Whispers (Gedichtesammlung zwischen 1997-2010). Er hat zwei Sprachführer im Auftrag von Horlemann Verlag und Deutsche Stiftung für Entwicklungsdienst (DSE) geschrieben, außerdem drei Artikeln über die Gurkhas, Achtausender und Nepals Symbolen für Nelles Verlags ‚Nepal’ und über Hinduismus in „Nepal: Myths & Realities (Book Faith India). Sein Gedicht „Mental Molotovs“ wurde im epd-Entwicklungsdienst (Frankfurt) veröffentlicht. Seine Lyrik sind in Slow Trains, International Zeitschrift, World Poetry Society (WPS), New Writing North, Muses Review, The Megaphone, Pen Himalaya, Interpoetry publiziert worden. Er ist ein Mitglied von Writers of Peace, poets, essayists, novelists (PEN), World Poetry Society (WPS).

Satis Shroff für Deutschen Engagementpreis 2011 nominiert

Satis Shroff /Green City Freiburg/MGV-Kappel dankt allen Unterstützern und freiwilligen Mitarbeitern.

Freiburg, 16.8.2011. Satis Shroff, MGV-Kappel ist für den Deutschen Engagementpreis nominiert. Dies wurde Satis Shroff durch ein Schreiben des „Projektbüros Deutscher Engagementpreis“ in Berlin mitgeteilt.

Satis Shroff wurde aufgrund seiner Soziale Engagement für den Deutschen Engagementpreis vorgeschlagen. Der Einsatz für soziale Engagement erfährt durch diese Nominierung eine besondere Anerkennung. Dies erfreut nicht nur [MGV-Kappel/Satis Shroff], sondern zeigt auch, dass das Thema soziale Engagement und Miteinander im Verein öffentlich wahrgenommen und als preiswürdig eingeschätzt wird. Der Deutsche Engagementpreis ehrt freiwillig engagierte Organisationen, Unternehmen und Personen. Die Auszeichnung wird verliehen vom Bündnis für Gemeinnützigkeit, einem Zusammenschluss von großen Dachverbänden und unabhängigen Organisationen des Dritten Sektors sowie von Experten und Wissenschaftlern. Förderer des Preises sind das Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ) und der Zukunftsfonds der Generali Deutschland Holding AG.

Der Deutsche Engagementpreis wird in den Kategorien Gemeinnütziger Dritter Sektor, Einzelperson, Wirtschaft, Politik & Verwaltung sowie der diesjährigen Schwerpunktkategorie Engagement von Älteren vergeben. Während eine Experten-Jury die Preisträger der einzelnen Kategorien bestimmt, können sich auch die Bürger selbst an der Auswahl der Sieger beteiligen: Sie wählen im Herbst den Gewinner des mit 10.000 Euro dotierten Publikumspreises mittels Online-Voting-Verfahren auf der Website www.deutscher-engagementpreis.de aus einer Vorauswahl von ca. 20 Projekten.

Mit dem diesjährigen Schwerpunkt widmet sich der Deutsche Engagementpreis in besonderem Maße dem Engagement von Älteren. Die „Generation 60plus“ zeichnet sich durch hohe Einsatzbereitschaft für das Gemeinwohl aus. Dieses Engagement verdient Anerkennung und öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit. Auch in/im Männergesangverein Kappel „Liederkranz“ sind zahlreiche ältere Menschen aktiv und leisten einen wertvollen Beitrag im Einsatz für Freiburg, Kappel, das Dreisamtal, der Badische Sängerbund.

2 External links

Bibliography:

Katmandu, Katmandu: Satis Shroff’s anthology is about a poet caught between upheavals in two countries, Nepal and Germany, where maoists and skin-heads are trying to undermine democratic values, religious and cultural life. Satis Shroff writes political poetry, in German and English, about the war in Nepal (My Nepal, Quo vadis?), the sad fate of the Nepalese people (My Nightmare, Only Sagarmatha Knows), the emergence of neo-fascism in Germany (Mental Molotovs, The Last Tram to Littenweiler) and love (The Broken Poet, Without Words, About You), women’s woes (Nirmala, Bombay Brothel). His bicultural perspective makes his poems rich, full of awe and at the same time heartbreakingly sad. In writing ‘home,’ he not only returns to his country of origin time and again, he also carries the fate of his people to readers in the West, and his task of writing is a very important one in political and social terms. His true gift is to invent Nepalese metaphors and make them accessible to the West through his poetry.

Im Schatten des Himalaya: Themen der Geschichten und Gedichten sind u.a.: Kampf um Demokratie (My Nepal: Quo vadis?), Transition (Wenn die Seele sich verabschiedet), und die Stellung der Frau (Bombay Bordel, Nirmala: Zwischen Terror und Ekstase), die verführerische Bergwelt (Die Himalaya rufen, Die Sehnsucht der Himalaya), das Leben in der Fremde (Gibt es Hexen in Deutschland?), Soldatenleben und Krieg (Der Verlust einer Mutter, Die Agonie des Krieges, Kein letzte Sieg), Tod nach Tollwut (Fatale Entscheidung), Trennung und Emanzipation (Santa Fe), Migration und Fremdenhass (Mental Molotovs, Letzte Tram nach Littenweiler), Tourismus (Mein Alptraum, Die Götter sind weg), Alkoholismus (Der Professors Gattin), Gewalt (Krieg), Trennung (Die Stimme, Der Rosenkrieg), Nachbarn (Die Sommerhitze) und die Liebe (Der zerbrochene Dichter, Eine seufzende Prinzessin, Ohne Wörter), die Familie (Meine Maya), der Tod (An Carolin Walter, Wenn die Seele Abschied nimmt).

Through Nepalese Eyes: ‘Through Nepalese Eyes’ is about the journey of a young Nepalese woman to Germany to meet her brother, who lives with his German wife and daughter in an allemanic town named Freiburg. It is a travelogue written by a sensitive, modern British public-school educated man. He describes the two worlds: Asia and Europe and the people he meets. There is a touch of sadness when his sister returns to her home in the foothills of the Himalayas.

A Gurkha Mother & Mental Molotovs: This book is about love, the sad fate of the Nepalese people, the lure of the Himalayas and the trials and tribulations of a cross-section of the Nepali people, with characters and themes pertaining to the agrarian, soldier, teaching and other milieus. Globalisation has reached Kathmandu Valley but the world outside Kathmandu Valley still remains rural and untouched by modernity. The trekking tourism has been booming along the much-treaded trails, but village-life has changed little. Nepal has been declared a Federal Republic but a certain uneasiness lingers in the Himalayas..

External links

www.facebook.com/satis.shroff

http://SearchWarp.com/Author83824.htm

www.worldsentinel.com/categories/world/France

www.slowtrains.com/rave_on/rave_on.html

www.star.cityes.org/.../the-official-catalogue-of-the-members-of-w.p.s.-19-july-2006-8-june-2008.html

www.brooklynartproject.ning.com/.../satis-shroff-in-lyrik

www.satisshroff.wordpress.com/ethnomedical-therapy-2008-satis-shroff/

www.searchwarp.com/Author83824.htm

www.jacketflap.com/profile.asp?member=Satis

www.bookmarket.ning.com/profile/satisshroff

www.ayjw.org/articles.php?id=911453

www.satisshroff.wordpress.com

www.booksie.com/poetry/.../nepal-blues-(satis-shroff)

www.authorsden.com/visit/viewPoetry.asp?...

www.boloji.com/places/0039.htm

www.gurkhas.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=187

www.ayjw.org/articles.php?id=942415

www.interpoetry.com/satisshroff19.html

www.sonog.com/viewwriting.php

www.asianamericanpoetry.com/show_poem.php?...Satis_Shroff3e016vkamq

www.thepeopleslounge.ning.com/profile/SatisShroff

www.musesreview.org/html/main.php?g2...

www.voicesnet.mobi/mobidisplayonedoc.asp?..

www.satisshroff-zeitgeist.blogspot.com/2008/05/blog-post.html

Authority control

Categories:

Zeitgeistlyrik: Rituals in the Himalayas

2014-08-19T01:50:00.000-07:00

Rituals in the Himalayas (Satis Shroff)

Namaste,
I greet the Godliness in you.
Tika, a Hindu symbol,
A blessing from the parents,
From the priest at the temple,
During a visit to a shrine,
After a puja,
A ritual ceremony.

Faith and belief in God,
Spirituality in the Himalayas
As old and strong,
As the Abode of Snows,
Undaunted by colonialism
And conquests with the sickel sword.

Om namo Shiva,
Rituals reveal the unity,
Between the self and the cosmos;
A light in your innermost self.

Through rituals you become one
With your soul.
You feel it within the molecules,
Atoms and positrons in you.
Be it big or small,
In this eternally moving world,
Nothing is without a meaning.

The ancient rituals
Have each a meaning,
In the endless metamorphosis
Of the individual,
To be in tact with the universe.
It is the daily rituals
That lead us to unity,
Growth of consciousness,
That engulfs all.

In rituals we bundle energy
For the changes in the cycle
Of Death and Creation.
It is the litany of mantras
Combined with ritual offerings,
That create a work of art: the yantra.
Dedicated to the Gods and Goddesses,
In the shrine, temple and pagoda.

Seasonal flowers plucked at dawn,
To beckon and appease the Gods,
Sandalwood tika paste,
Cereals and herbs,
Sweetmeat and fruits.
The beauty of the yantra
Creates harmony.
The chime of the temple bells
Evoke feelings of spirituality.
There is a mingling
Of cultural powers that be,
In peace and balance.

If you’re ill perform a ritual
At the right time,
To restore the balance,
Between illness and recovery,
Between right and wrong,
Between holy and unholy,
Between wealth and poverty,
Between rain and sun,
Flood and drought,
Life, death and rebirth.

— with Freiburger-Nepalese Association-Fna and Seraf Pandey.

Namaste, I Greet the Godliness in You!

Rembering the Past: Le Grande Guerre (Satis Shroff)

2014-08-09T15:34:00.002-07:00

A CULTURE OF REMEMBERING THE PAST (Satis Shroff)

Mein Name ist Satis Shroff und bin ursprunglich aus Nepal wo ich als Journalist gearbeitet habe. Hier bin ich tätig als Dozent, Autor, Dichter und Künstler und zeitweise als Lehrbeauftragter für Creative Writing an der Uni Freiburg. Singen und Malen tue ich auch gerne. Ich singe in einem Männerchor in Kappel. Wir singen Lieder aus Israel, Afrika, Russland, Broadway Musicals und Heimat und Schwarzwaldlieder. Mein Lieblingslieder sind: „Berg Heimat Du“ und „Ein Du Mädchen vom Schwarzwald.“

Worüber ich schreibe? Meine Themen sind: Sehnsucht, die Liebe, Miteinander, Menschenwurde, Migration,Toleranz und One-World.

Ich habe sechs Bücher geschrieben:

- Im Schatten des Himalaya (Gedichte und Prosa),

- Through Nepalese Eyes (Reisebericht),

- Katmandu, Katmandu (Gedichte und Prosa mit Nepali autoren)

- Glacial Whispers (Gedichtesammlung zwischen 1997-2010).

Ich habe zusätzlich zwei Nepali Sprachführer im Auftrag von Horlemannverlag und Deutsche Stiftung für Entwicklungsdienst (DSE) geschrieben,
- außerdem drei Artikeln über die Gurkhas, Achtausender und Nepals Symbolen für Nelles Verlags ‚Nepal’
und über Hinduismus in „Nepal: Myths & Realities (Book Faith India).
Meine Lyrik sind in Slow Trains, International Zeitschrift, World Poetry Society (WPS), New Writing North, Muses Review, The Megaphone, Pen Himalaya, Interpoetry publiziert worden.
Sie brauchen einfach meine Name beim Google einzugeben und da erscheinen meine Werke.

Da Literatur eine der wichtigsten Wege ist, um die Kulturen kennenzulernen, habe ich mein Leben dem Kreatives Schreiben gewidmet

Heute lese ich die folgende Gedichte:

1. A Gurkha Mutter

2. Der Verlust des Sohnes einer Mutter

The Lure of the Himalayas
Die Sehnsucht des Himalaya
Heidegger I
Heidegger II
Heidegger III
The Gurkha Never Asks Why
Le Grande Guerre
Crosses and Poppy fields
Gurkhas go to the Great War
Summertime
How Could I Exist?

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Lyrik: A GURKHA MOTHER (Satis Shroff)

(Death of a Precious Jewel)

The gurkha with a khukri

But no enemy

Works for the Queen of England,

Yet gets shot at

In missions he doesn't comprehend.

Order is hukum,

Hukum is life

Johnny Gurkha still dies

Under foreign skies.

He never asks why

Politics isn't his style

He's fought against all and sundry:

Turks, Tibetans, Italians and Indians

Germans, Japanese, Chinese

Argentineans and Vietnamese.

Indonesians and Iraqis.

Loyalty to the utmost

Never fearing a loss.

The loss of a mother's son

From the mountains of Nepal.

Her grandpa died in Burma

For the glory of the British.

Her husband in Mesopotemia

She knows not against whom

No one did tell her.

Her brother fell in France,

Against the Teutonic hordes.

She prays to Shiva of the Snows for peace

And her son's safety.

Her joy and her hope

Farming on a terraced slope.

A son who helped wipe her tears

And ease the pain in her mother's heart.

A frugal mother who lives by the seasons

And peers down to the valleys

Year in and year out

In expectation of her soldier son.

A smart Gurkha is underway

Heard from across the hill with a shout

'It’s an officer from his brigade.

A letter with a seal and a poker-face

"Your son died on duty," he says,

"Keeping peace for the Queen of England,

And the United Kingdom."

A world crumbles down

The Nepalese mother cannot utter a word

Gone is her son,

Her precious jewel.

Her only insurance and sunshine

In the craggy hills of Nepal.

And with him her dreams

A spartan life that kills.

Glossary:

gurkha: soldier from Nepal

khukri: curved knife used in hand-to-hand combat

hukum: Befehl/command/order

shiva: a god in Hinduism

******

Der Verlust des Sohnes einer Mutter (Satis Shroff)

Der Gurkha

Mit einem gefährlichen Khukri

Aber kein Feind in Sicht,

Arbeitet für die Königin von England,

Und wird erschossen

Für Einsätze,

Die er nicht begreift.

Befehl ist Hukum,

Hukum ist sein Leben

Johnny Gurkha stirbt noch

Unter fremdem Himmel.

Er fragt nie warum

Die Politik ist nicht seine Stärke.

Er hat gegen alle gekämpft:

Türken, Tibeter, Italiener, und Inder

Deutsche, Japaner, Chinesen,

Vietnamesen und Argentinier.

Loyal bis ans Ende,

Er trauert keinem Verlust nach.

Der Verlust des Sohnes einer Mutter,

Von den Bergen Nepals.

Ihr Großvater starb in Birmas Dschungel

Für die glorreichen Engländer.

Ihr Mann fiel in Mesopotamien,

Sie weiß nicht gegen wen,

Keiner hat es ihr gesagt.

Ihr Bruder ist in Frankreich gefallen,

Gegen die teutonische Reichsarmee.

Sie betet Shiva von den Schneegipfeln an

Für Frieden auf Erden, und ihres Sohnes Wohlbefinden.

Ihr einzige Freude, ihre letzte Hoffnung,

Während sie den Terrassenacker

Auf einem schroffen Hang bestellt.

Ein Sohn, der ihr half,

Ihre Tränen zu wischen

Und den Schmerz in ihrem mütterlichen Herz

zu lindern.

Eine arme Mutter, die mit den Jahreszeiten lebt,

Jahr ein und Jahr aus, hinunter in die Täler schaut

Mit Sehnsucht auf ihren Soldatensohn.

Ein Gurkha ist endlich unterwegs

Man hört es über den Bergen mit einem Geschrei.

Es ist ein Offizier von seiner Brigade.

Ein Brief mit Siegel und ein Pokergesicht

„Ihren Sohn starb im Dienst,“

sagt er lakonisch:

„Er kämpfte für die Königin von England

Und für den Vereinigten Königreich.“

Eine Welt bricht zusammen

Und kommt zu einem Ende.

Ein Kloß im Hals der Nepali Mutter.

Nicht ein Wort kann sie herausbringen.

Weg ist ihr Sohn, ihr kostbares Juwel.

Ihr einzige Versicherung und ihr Sonnenschein.

In den unfruchtbaren, kargen Bergen,

Und mit ihm ihre Träume

Ein spartanisches Leben,

Das den Tod bringt.

* * *

German Academic Prize Winner Satis Shroff teaches Creative Writing at the elite Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg. The author and lecturer lives in Freiburg and writes about themes like longing, love, the agony of war, the discrimination against Gurkhas, togetherness, dignity of humans, tolerance and one-world in his poems, articles and books.

* * *

The Lure of the Himalayas (Satis Shroff, Freiburg)

Once upon a time,

Near the town of Kashgar,
I, a stranger in local clothes was captured
By the sturdy riders of Vali Khan.
What was a stranger
With fair skin and blue eyes,
Looking for in Vali Khan’s terrain?
I, the stranger spoke a strange tongue.
‘He’s a spy sent by China.
Behead him, ’ barked the Khan’s officer.
I pleaded and tried to explain
My mission in their country.
It was all in vain.

On August 26,1857
I, Adolph Schlagintweit,
a German traveller, an adventurer,
Was beheaded as a spy,
Without a trial.

I was a German who set out on the footsteps
Of the illustrious Alexander von Humboldt,
With my two brothers Hermann and Robert,
From Southhampton on September 20,1854
To see India, the Himalayas and Higher Asia.
The mission of the 29000km journey
Was to make an exact cartography
Of the little known countries,
Sans invitation, I must admit.

In Kamet we reached a 6785m peak,
An elevation record in those days.
We measured the altitudes,
Gathered magnetic, meteorological,
And anthropological data.
We even collected extensive
Botanical, zoological and ethnographic gems.

Hermann and I made 751 sketches,
Drawings, water-colour and oil paintings.
The motifs were Himalayan panoramas,
Single summits, glacier formations,
Himalayan rivers and houses of the natives.
Padam valley, near the old moraine
Of the main glacier at Zanskar in pencil and pen.
A view from Gunshankar peak 6023 metres,
From the Trans-Sutlej chain in aquarelle.
A European female in oriental dress in Calcutta 1855.
Brahmin, Rajput and Sudra women draped in saris.
Kristo Prasad, a 35 year old Rajput
Photographed in Benaras.
An old Hindu fakir with knee-long rasta braids,

Bhot women from Ladakh, snapped in Simla.
Kahars, Palki-porters from Bihar,
Hindus of the Sudra caste.
A Lepcha armed with bow and arrows,
In traditional dress up to his calves
And a hat with plume.
Kistositta, a 25 year old Brahmin from Bengal,
Combing the hair of Mungia,
A 43 year old Vaisa woman.
A wandering Muslim minstrel Manglu at Agra,
With his sarangi.
A 31 year old Ram Singh, a Sudra from Benaras,
Playing his Kolebassen flute.
The monsoon,
And thatched Khasi houses at Cherrapunji

The precious documents of our long journey
Can be seen at the Alpine Museum Munich.
Even a letter,
Sent by Robert to our sister Matilde,
Written on November 2,1866 from Srinagar:
‘We travelled a 200 English mile route,
Without seeing a human being,
Who didn’t belong to our caravan.
Besides our horses, we had camels,
The right ones with two humps,
Which you don’t find in India.
We crossed high glacier passes at 5500m
And crossed treacherous mountain streams.’

My fascination for the Himalayas
Got the better of me.
I had breathed the rare Himalayan air,
And felt like Icarus.
I wanted to fly higher and higher,
Forgetting where I was.
My brothers Hermann and Robert left India
By ship and reached Berlin in June,1857.

I wanted to traverse the continent
Disregarding the dangers,
For von Humboldt was my hero.
Instead of honour and fame,
My body was dragged by wild riders in the dust,
Although I had long left the world.

A Persian traveller, a Muslim with a heart
Found my headless body.
He brought my remains all the way to India,
Where he handed it to a British colonial officer.

It was a fatal fascination,
But had I the chance,
I’d do it again.

* * *

Die Sehnsucht des Himalaya(Satis Shroff)

Lange ist es her,

In der Nähe von Kashgarstadt,

Wurde ich, ein Fremder, gefangen

Von den wilden Reitern des Vali Khan.

Was macht ein Fremder,

Mit blasser Haut und blauen Augen,

In Vali Khans Gebiet?

Ich, der Fremde, der eine seltsame Sprache sprach.

„Er ist ein Spion von China.

Köpf ihm,“ brüllte der Kahns Offizier.

Ich flehte und bat um Gnade,

Versuchte meine Mission zu erklären.

Vergebens.

Am 26. August 1857

Ich, Adolph Schlagintweit,

Ein Deutscher Reisender,

Ein Abenteuerer,

Wurde als Spion enthauptet,

Ohne eine Verhandlung.

Ich war ein Deutscher

Auf Alexander von Humbolts Fußstapfen,

Mit meinen Brüdern Herman und Robert,

Von Southhampton am 20, September 1954 gestartet,

Um Indien, das Himalayagebirge und Hochasien

Zu sehen und zu erkunden.

Die Mission von der 29,000km Reise

War, eine exakte Kartographie anzufertigen,

Von den unbekannten Ländern.

Sans Einladung,

Ich muss gestehen.

In Kamet erreichten wir ein 6785m hohen Gipfel,

Eine erstaunliche Höhe in jenen Tagen.

Wir haben die Höhen gemessen,

Meteorologische, magnetische,

Und anthropologische Daten dokumentiert.

Sogar botanische, zoologische

Und ethnographische Raritäten

Haben wir gesammelt.

Hermann und ich machten 751 Skizzen,

Aquarelle und Ölbilder.

Die Motive waren Himalaya-Panoramas,

Einzelne Gipfel, Gletscherformationen,

Reißende Himalayaflüße

Und exotische Häuser und Hütten

Von den Einheimischen.

Padamtal, neben der alten Moraine,

Von dem Hauptgletscher in Zanskar

In Bleistift und Feder.

Ein Blick vom dem 6023 m Gaurishanker-Gipfel,

Von der Trans-Sutlej-Kette in Aquarell.

In Kalkutta 1855 eine europäische Dame

In orientalischen Kleidern.

Brahmin, Rajput und Sudra Frauen,

Gewickelt in meterlange Saris.

Kristo Prasad, ein 35jähriher Rajput,

Photographiert in Benaras.

Ein alter Hindu Fakir,

Mit einer knielangen Rastafrisur.

Bhotfrauen von Ladakh, aufgenommen in Simla.

Kahars, Palki-Träger von Bihar,

Hindus von der Sudra-Kaste.

Ein Lepcha bewaffnet mit Pfeil und Bogen,

In traditionellen Tracht,

Die bis zu seinem Unterschenkel reichten,

Und einen Hut mit Feder.

Kistositta, ein 25jährige Brahmane aus Bengalen,

Kämmte die Haare von Mungia,

Einer 42jährigen Vaisa Frau.

Manglu in Agra, ein reisender

Muslime Bänklesänger mit seine Sarangi

Ram Singh, ein 31jähriger Sudra aus Benaras,

Der seine Kolebassenflöte spielte.

Der Monsun,

Und die strohgedeckten Häuser in Cherrapunji

Die kostbaren Dokumente von unserer langen Reise,

Kann man im alpinen Museum in München anschauen.

Sogar ein Brief von Robert,

An unsere Schwester Matilde,

Geschrieben am 2. November 1866 von Srinagar:

„Wir sind eine 200 englische Meilen Route gefahren

Ohne ein Mensch zu sehen,

Der nicht zu unserer Karavane gehörte.

Außer unseren Pferden, haben wir Kamele,

Die richtigen, mit zwei Höckern,

Die Du in Indien nicht findest.

Wir überquerten 5500m Hohe Gletscherpässe,

Und gefährliche Bergflüsse.“

Meine Faszination für das Himalayagebirge

Brachte mich um.

Ich hatte die Himalayaluft eingeatmet,

Und vergaß wo ich war.

Ich fühlte mich wie einst Ikarus,

Und wollte höher und noch höher

Und vergaß wo ich war.

Mein Brüder Hermann und Robert

Verliessen Indien mit dem Schiff

Und erreichten Berlin in Juni 1857.

Ich, meinerseits, wollte die Kontinent durchqueren,

Ohne Gedanken an Gefahren,

Die vor mir lagen,

Denn Humboldt war mein Held.

Anstatt Ruhm und Ehrung,

Mein Körper wurde

Von wilden Reitern in den Staub gezerrt,

Obwohl ich schon längst

Die irdische Welt verlassen hatte.

Ein persischer Reisender, ein Muslim mit Herz,

Fand meinen kopflosen Körper.

Er brachte mein Leichnam,

Über die Himalaya nach Indien,

Und übergab ihn zu einem britischen Offizier.

Es war eine fatale Faszination.

Aber hätte ich die Chance,

Wurde ich dasselbe wieder tun.

** * *

Heidegger Triology: Back from Syrakus

Plato once said:
Megala panta episphale,´
Questionable,
Destined to fall,
Endangered.
This was Plato´s philosophic answer
To the tyrant Syracus,
Who was doomed to fail.
But why did I follow
Plato´s words,
And took them
To a heroic sturm-and-drang?
It is true,
I sympathised with the inner truth
Of the National Socialism,
For a short while.
But this short episode cost me
My very existence.
The human being has to grow big
In his own self,
In order to see big movements
And to be aware of it.
I came from a small family,
Didn´t want to be involved
In petty matters,
Donning the mantle
Of stubbornness and refusing
To accept new challenges.
I wanted to understand
The secrets of powerful men,
To ultimately be a part of them.
But in the course of time,
The powerful persons for which I yearned,
Changed their countenances.
My philosophic thoughts
Dwelled on my homeland,
God,
Existence,
Being,
Nothingness,
The German folk,
Original thought and great poetry.
Towards the end came the planetary technology,
Which grew big.
My works of philosophy
Went through the illusions and catastrophies
Of the 20th century.
All striving for greatness
Leads to downfall.
At the beginning of the war
The German nationalism was awakened.
The people were collectively enthusiastic,
Hitting us all,
Like a tidal wave.
I didn´t care much
About what was happening
Around me.
In my thoughts I was living,
Thinking about people in the Middle Ages.
I was following a metaphysical imperative.
In the battlefield of Verdun,
Half a million soldiers perished.
But I was disappointed
For I didn´t get a professorship
At the University of Freiburg.
The Führer once wanted to be an artist.
I wanted to be a priest
The Jesuits and the Catholics in Freiburg
Turned me down.
Similar to Friedrich Nietzsche´s
Forty-year old Zarathustra,
Who after ten years of solitude
In his mountain cave,
Went down to the humans,
To teach them the incredibility
Of being,
The meaning of their being,
I also wanted to reveal and teach
The essentials of human existence,
Which deals with one´s own being.
For the world of being or Sein,
Is not only the self-world,
But also the world of togetherness,
In which the being-in
Is always the being-together.
Existence is threatened by anxiety,
Behind which lies
The temporality of existence.
The aim of philosophy
Is to listen to the silence of existence.

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK_bbdVPOdQ&feature=plcp

THE FÜHRER OF THE MIND (Satis Shroff)

In his ‘Seventh Letter’ Plato wrote
About his three journeys to Syrakus and Sicily
Between 389 and 361 BC.
Plato had close relations to the ruling tyrann:
At first with Dionysios I,
Later with his son Dionysios II,
Who he tried to educate and lead.

Among other philosophic questions,
Socrates had to answer this one:
In which way does a state have to use philosophy,
In order not to go under,
For all greatness is questionable.
Platon was defeated in Syrakus,
Because Dionysios II refused to overtake
His ideas about State,
Education, laws and constitution.
Plato became frustrated.
His state-philosophical plans had failed.

I hoped that history would repeat itself,
This time with a happy result.
So I chose Plato as my own hero,
For the political battle,
With Adolf Hitler in the role of Dionysios II.
On January 19,1933 after the big elections victory
In Lippe,
A great storm has come over me,
In which I’ve set out my full sail.
With this, a lot of old ties
Were torn or broken.
I can’t mend them now.
O what a storm it was,
In which you and I and all
Were swept away.
It was the greatness and exemplary Greek philosophy,
Waking up anew,
Albeit, the dark orders of a state and society,
Undergoing a massive change.

After Hitler was given the right
To govern by the old Reichspresident
Paul von Hinderburg,
My will to work for the Third Reich
Became stronger.
In order to stabilise the NS-rule,
My philosophy became a part
Of the Nazi ideology.
I had my doubts when deeds were done,
To lift the needs
Of the folk and the Reich,
But I believed that the political changes
Were a challenge to me,
My country needed me.
Between the Greek philosophy
And the NS movement,
I wanted to fight
Against the dying spirit of Christendom,
And the spectre of the communist world.
The Greeks and the German folk,
A politic of Being and Führer-state,
Platon and I myself.

I was a convinced National Socialist,
At the beginning of the Third Reich.
It was in the solitude
Of the autumnal and wintry Black Forest,
That I decided to be involved
In building a world,
Created by a folk.
That was the new reality.

The ‘Being’ I’d learned from Parmenides,
Platon and Aristoteles,
Should be used to make the NS-spirit,
A part and parcel of German history.
The NSDAP became my political home.
The Rectorat gave me the institutional confirmation.
I became a member of the NSDAP
On May 1, 1933
With the No. 3125894,
Gau Baden.

* * *

BACK FROM SYRAKUS III (Satis Shroff

My first act as the Rector
Of the Freiburger University,
Was to send a circular letter
To all lecturers.
The construction of a new mental world,
For the German folk is the essential duty
Of the German university.
This is national work
Of the highest meaning and priority.

In 1933 I craved for power,
In the field of Political Science.
I wanted to be a Führer of the Mind,
To create a real geistige world
For the German folk.
I found a suitable forum
In the NS-Führer-State.
I greeted the Freiburger students
With the authoritative imperative words:
‘Not teachings and ideas
Are the rules of your being.
The Führer himself alone
Is the German reality
And your law today
Till hereafter.’

The teachers had to be taught again,
So I transformed my philosophical thoughts,
To political activities.
Again and again,
The being, the Germanvolk,
And the Führer were connected
In all my speeches.

At the beginning of 1934 ,
It became clear to me,
That the greatness (Hitler) which I desired,
Was destined to fall.
I noticed that the liberals and conservatives
Were disgusted with Hitler’s propaganda.
Erich Jaensch characterised my philosophical thoughts
As ‘tamundic-rabulistic,’
Which would have a magnetic attraction
For Jews and people of Jewish descent.
To Erich Jaensch,
I was a dangerous schizophrenic
And my pathologic writings
Would only be admired by weird people.
Ernst Krieck saw in my philosophy
A ferment of decay and decomposition
For the German folk.

I saw in the Führer not the egocentric powerful man,
But an instance of political knowledge,
With a concentration
Of the new spirit of state-and-folk community.
There is only one will for the state to exist.
The Führer has awakened this desire
In the entire folk and made it
To a common goal.
In lieu of the objective he-she-it,
I preferred the meaning of being ‘I am.’
I became a follower of the NSDAP,
The propagandist of national socialism.
I wanted to see people who had the will,
The inner power to make greatness even bigger.
Most people made the usual snarls
Of ordinary citizens,
Who cling to small and half-things;
They don’t want to see,
Never can see the big and farthest,
The unique and all-powerful.

My friends wrote to me on my 80th birthday:
‘Mr. H.,
Are you back from Syrakus?’
Back from my escapade.
I felt like Plato,
Who was disappointed by Dionysios II.
My disappointment was much bigger
Than that of Plato,
Because the tyrant and his victim,
Were not beyond the seas,
But in my own country.

My thoughts moved to Being,
Das Sein.
In my search for heroes I came across:
Parmenides, Heraklit, Holderlin and Nietsche.
I abandoned political thought,
Embraced the thoughts of the poet,
Poetic thoughts,
For in the language of poetry,
You find the purest essence of language,
Which can begin and develop.
I wanted to show that language
Is not an expression of biological-racist humans.
The essence of humans through language,
Is the basic reality of the mind.

To the Nazis I became suddenly
A suspected person,

Who needed to be shadowed

* * *


Freiburg after the Allied bombardment:..and then came the bombs. It lasted only 20 minutes but it seemed like an eternity. What had happened near them was over, but it was though they had fear of being found out because of their voices, and they remained quiet.

THE GURKHA NEVER ASKS WHY (Satis Shroff)

A lifeless body is cremated,

His sins and folley,

Bravery and loyalty,

Licked and devoured by the flames

Of Agni.

Only the thoughts remain,

Of a man who did his duty,

Never questioning why.

He did it for the Queen of England,

The small, sturdy Gurkha.

But when he became ill and old,

The NHS refused to pay the bill

For his medical treatment.

Hischildren weren't sent

To English schools.

The Brits would rather let

The Gurkha and his kind,

Go to Nepal,

To lick his wounds.

His English friends never rallied

Around him.

They kept to themselves,

And let the stoic, brave Gurkha,

Die in the foothills

Of the Himalayas.

His was not the praiseworthy laughter,

Friendships, gentlemanliness

Of the English world.

The dying Gurkha never saw your tears,

The praise that you bestowed upon him

Became a curse.

Many a Gurkha fought

For your English honour,

Pride and greed;

Died with his blood-soaked khukri

For evermore.

Did you care, the MoD,

The oh-so-proud officers?

Nevermore. Nevermore.

* * *

Victory Memorial (Siegesdenkmal in Freiburg today) Schlacht bei Belfort 15. 16. 17. January 1871

LE GRANDE GUERRE (Satis Shroff)

Man versus monstrous machines,

Scared humans with panic stricken eyes,

Against the angry growls of guns,

The wailing shells that rained death,

In the trenches of Verdun, Gallipoli,

Flander's Boesinghe.

The West and East Front.

Puny soldiers pitted against beastly machines,

Infernal to the core,

Manufactured to slaughter

Enemies with two legs,

On both sides.

After forty years of peaceful coexistence,

Hatred, greed, envy, political cuningness

Began to spread in Europe,

Like the plague,

Or aids and MRSA today.

The Germans, French, Russians,

Austrians, Hungarians, British

Began slaughtering each other.

Was it a war of colonial powers,

Of whites against whites in their own homes?

Far from it.

Logistics, armaments and cannon-fodder

From even the former colonies,

Were not spared.

In the bloodiest of battles

That began in the summer of 1914,

The soldiers lost everything,

Even their precious minds,

In a krieg of man against technology.

Humans were herded like cattle to the slaughterhouse.

The larks hid themselves and ceased to sing,

In the thunderous din of the shells

That shook the heavens.

The charge of the light brigade

Was abruptly stopped by well-placed barbed-wire.

People in uniform perished

In a hail of bullets from machine guns.

White bones only prevailed.

'Schnellfeuer!' was the order of the day.

Load, aim, fire!

The systematic killing of heroes began

In a hell of shells.

A yellowish-green mist arose,

Made in the lab by chemist Fritz Haber,

Mingled with the air.

Soldiers started coughing, bodies shook,

Big horses neighed and trembled,

The riders and their steeds faltered.

Chemical war waged on April 22, 1915,

Near Ypern – the Belgian Front.

150 tons of chlorine emptied in the trenches,

Panic broke among the French troops.

1200 soldiers of Franch died,

Another 3000 were injured,

Without firing a single shot.

The gas war had begun,

And mustard gas was deployed

The British Tommies died in pain.

80,000 soldiers were killed in the gas war.

More than a million were injured.

Tears of happiness flowed

Over Fritz Haber's cheeks,

And he received soon a promotion

For his deed.

'Im Frieden der Menschheit,

im Krieg dem Vaterland'

Was his motto.

Haber and Bosch discovered

The ammoniac synthesis,

Useful as fertilizers.

The Allies wanted to bring him to court,

But the Swedes awarded Fritz the Nobel Prize.

After the Great War was over,

Fritz Haber created Zyklon B,

The dreaded gas of concentrations camps.

The Nazis forced him

To give up his job at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute.

He went to England,

Died eight months later,

For he'd been declared a Jew.

* * *

CROSSES AND POPPIES (Satis Shroff)

Remember the dead

And place a scarlet poppy

Between the hundreds of white crosses

In Flanders,

Or elsewhere.

The sun has set for the men

Who fought,

Died on duty

For their fatherlands,

Or for the wily politicians,

In the home front.

The dead were obliged to take up quarrels

Instigated by politicians and powers that be,

Wh used fiery speeches,

To mobilise the masses.

To fight the enemy

With aeroplanes, tanks and infernal gas.

The tempo of combat became fast,

Put pressure on the mind and body.

Enlisted, mobilised soldiers were caught

Unprepared and surprised.

Isn't history full of goodwill and good intentions?

Even tyrants and dictators believe,

And still do,

They're improving the world.

Galvanizing and mesmerising people

With their charisma,

The way Hitler, Stalin, Lenin have done,

The fury of World War I went on

For four years and three months.

It left 2,7 million dead Germans,

More than 1,8 million Russians.

1,9 million French dead,

1,8 million Austrians and Hungarians,

And 1 million from the British Isles.

What had ended for the dead?

This wonderful world,

With its friendships, smiles given, favours done,

The culinary flavours, mirth, glorious sunsets,

The twitters and chirps of birds at dawn,

Music and dewdrops,

An unforgettable lover's kiss.

The seasonal changes, children laughing at play,

The whims of women,

The pride of men,

The useful technology of man,

Philosophy and literature.

All these came to an end,

For the 15 million humans died.

2 million Germans died near Villiers.

August Stramm (1874-1915) wrote in his 'Tropfblut:'

Sturmangriff

Aus allen Winkeln gellen

Fürchte wollen

Kreischen

Peitsch

Das Leben

Vor sich

Her

Den Keuchen Tod

Die Himmel fetzen

Blinde schlächter wildum das Entsetzen.

Erich Maria Remarque scribed:

Ruhr, Grippe, Typhus –

Würgen, Verbrennen, Tod.

Graben, Lazarett, Massengrab

– mehr Möglichkeiten gibt es nicht.

In the autumn of 1917 a fourth of the British

Drowned, wounded and helpless in swamps.

Half of the ther twelve million soldiers

Of the Zar of Russia were wounded or died.

There was a dearth of medication.

The only solace was the Orthodox priest,

Who blessed them all.

* * *

(Gurkhas, known for their smartness and elan und feared by the enemy because of the curved knife khukri. The pic depicts the former Royal Gurkhas in Nepal )

GURKHAS GO TO THE GREAT WAR (Satis Shroff)

Gurkha soldiers on leave in the hills of Nepal

Were summoned to their batallions.

Colonial British based in India

Pledged to do their bit.

The Gurkhas left India on the SS Barpeta,

In November 1914.

British ladies gave them tea, dried fruits,

Chillies and cigarettes.
The officers were given books.

The 1/4^th Gurkhas chugged in the SS Baroda,

Destination: Suez Canal on August 24,1914.

To the Hindu Gurkhas the sea was 'kala pani,'

Black Water.

It was a sacrilege to cross the sea.

A Hindu Gurkha would risk his caste,

Unless a Vedic ritual was performed ,

A ceremony with the name pani patiya.

If a Hindu returned from overseas,

A Brahmin priest was summoned

And this special dispensation performed.

The Nepalese Maharaja

Sir Chandra Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana

Appealed to the Raj Guru (high priest)

To give his approval to cross the Black Water.

The Gurkhas became seasick.

'Where did the water come from?

Where did it go?' asked the hillmen.

The ship left a trail behind,

Where were the tracks up front?

Steam ship? Never heard of such a thing.

The Gurkhas were simple, sturdy, loyal sons,

Knew no geography, leave alone history.

School was out of question.

They were outdoor men and loved a good fight.

What was the cause of the war?

They couldn't read English newspapers,

Couldn't talk with people other than Gurkhas.

They lived in splendid isolation.

The king was the absolute monarch of Nepal,

Even though he'd usurped the throne.

Democracy was a foreign word.

Gurkhas fought for the honour of their army units,

After the motto:

'It is better to die than nto be a coward.'

They fought for their comrade-in-arms,

For pay and pension.

And the excitement of combat,

Whipped up by their officers.

Nepal not only gave its best men to the world,

But also a million rupees to the colonial British.

The Maharaja presented thirty-one machine guns

On King George's birthday in 1915.

On October 29,1914 the first Gurkhas entered

the trenches near Festubert.

The war was grim,

The terrain was wet, cold, damp,

And hunger prevailed in the trenches.

The 2/8^th Gurkhas were greeted

By heavy German shelling.

After a splendid dash the Gurkhas beat them back,

But thirty seven were killed,

Sixty were wounded.

A hundred were missing,

Blown to bits and pieces by shells.

Nepal's hillmen had to brave the German artillery,

Bitter stormy wind in northern France and Belgium.

The straw-filled sandbags over the boots,

Whale oil for feet massage,

Were of no help against frost bite.

Gurkhas and officers were shot dead,

While cutting barbwire in the Front.

4000 Indian Corps soldiers were wounded

In ten days.

Heavy rains flooded the trenches and ground

Around Neuve Chapelle.

Among the 529 Gurkhas,

147 fell.

Where was the glory?

Angst, bloodshed, frozen toes,

Biting pain subdued the thoughts

Of the ones he's loved and left in the Himalayas.

Duty and war demanded sacrifice.

Breathing poisonous air,

Emitted by the enemy,

A whiff and your eyes burn,

Yellow blisters develop on your skin.

Mustard gas was fifty times worse

Than chlorine.

Not even the gas mask could save you.

It went through and through.

Richard Aldington (1892-1962) wrote aptly:

'The battle was as a rule so impersonal

That it was like a nature catastrophe,

A clash of the elements.

It was a war of shells,

Murderous explosives that made a lose

Your senses,

And not a fight man against man.'

* * *

(Sketch of Günter Grass by Satis Shroff)

THE AGONY OF WAR (Satis Shroff)

Once upon a time there was a seventeen year old boy

Who lived in the Polish city of Danzig.

He was ordered to join the Waffen-SS,

Hitler’s elite division.

Oh, what an honour for a seventeen year old,

Almost a privilege to join the Waffen-SS.

The boy said, “Wir wurden von früh bis spät

Geschliffen und sollten

Zur Sau gemacht werden.”

A Russian grenade shrapnel brought his role

In the war to an abrupt end.

That was on April 20, 1945.

In the same evening,

He was brought to Meissen,

Where he came to know about his Vaterland’s defeat.

The war was lost long ago.

He realised how an ordinary soldier

Became helpless after being used as a tool in the war,

Following orders that didn’t demand heroism

In the brutal reality of war.

It was a streak of luck,

And his inability to ride a bicycle,

That saved his skin

At the Russian-held village of Niederlausitz.

His comrades rode the bicycle,

And he was obliged to give them fire-support

With a maschine-gun.

His seven comrades and the officer

Were slain by the Russians.

The only survivor was a boy

Of seventeen named Grass.

Günter Grass.

He abandoned his light maschine-gun,

And left the house of the bicycle-seller,

Through the backyard garden

With its creaky gate.

What were the chances in the days of the Third Reich

For a 17 year old boy to understand the world?

The BBC was a feindliche radio,

And Goebbels’ propaganda maschinery

Was in full swing.

There was no time to reflect in those days.

Fürcht und Elend im Dritten Reich,

Wrote Bertold Brecht later.

Why did he wait till he was almost eighty?

Why did he torment his soul all these years?

Why didn’t he tell the bitter truth,

About his tragi-comical role in the war

With the Waffen-SS?

He was a Hitlerjunge,

A young Nazi.

Faithful till the end.

A boy who was seduced by the Waffen-SS.

His excuse:

„Ich habe mich verführen lassen.“

The reality of the war brought

Endless death and suffering.

He felt the fear in his bones,

His eyes were opened at last.

Grass is a figure,

You think you know well.

Yet he’s aloof

And you hardly know him,

This literary titan.

He breathes literature

And political engagement.

In his new book:

Beim Häuten der Zwiebeln

He confides he has lived from page to page,

And from book to book.

Is he a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Dr. Freud and Mephistopheles,

In the same breast?

Grass belongs to us,

For he has spent the time with us.

It was his personal weakness

Not to tell earlier.

He’s a playwright, director and actor

Of his own creativeness.

His characters Oskar and Mahlke weren’t holy Joes.

It was his way of indirectly showing

What went inside him.

Ach, his true confession took time.

It was like peeling an onion with tears,

One layer after the other.

Better late than never.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Works by Günter Grass: Surrealist poems Die Vorzüge der Windhühner 1956, grotesque plays Hochwasser 1956, Onkel-Onkel, Noch zehn Minuten bis Buffalo, Die bösen Köche 1957, original novel Die Blechtrommel 1959 (The Tin Drum), poems and drawings Gleisdreieck 1960, Hundejahre 1963, Die Plebjer proben den Aufstand 1966, Büchner Prize 1965, illustrated poems Ausgefragt 1967, third novel örtlich betäubt, play Davor, 1969 gesammelte Gedichte1971, Maria zuehren 1973, Liebe geprüft 1974, wie ich mich sehe 1980, ,fourth novel Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke 1972,a study of melancholy Melancholia I, lengthy novel Der Butt1977, Das Treffen in Telgte 1979, Kopfgeburten oder Die Deutschen sterben aus 1980, Widerstand lernen, Politische Gegenreden 1980-1983, Aufsätze zur Literatur 1957-79 in 1980.Beim Häuten der Zwiebeln 2006.

* * *

SUMMERTIME I (Satis Shroff)

I sat in the garden
With Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure

On my lap,
And watched a small butterfly
With dark spots on its frail wings,
Violet patterns on its tail.
It was Aglais utricae
Flattering lightly
Between the marigolds
And chrysanthemums.

The Potentilla nepalensis
Was growing well
Under the shade of the rhododendrons.
The great pumpkin was spreading
Its leafy tentacles everywhere.
The tomatoes were fighting for light
Hiding beneath the pumpkin’s gigantic green leaves.

A Papilio machaon with its swallow-tail
Came from no where.
The laughter of the children,
As they swung in the garden’s two swings
Were a delight to one’s soul.

Little Florentin’s fear of bees,
Natasha’s morbid fear of spiders,
Elena’s garden gymnastics
And Julian’s delight in discovering
New insects, snails and snakes.

Holding hands we strolled in our garden.
You watered the flowers and trees,
I removed long, brown snails,
A hobby-gardener of Nepalese descent,
In a lovely house with character in Zähringen,
An Allemanic stronghold.
Once the subject of dispute
Between Austria and France,
Now a sleepy residential area of Freiburg.

* * *

Zeitgeistlyrik:

HOW COULD I EXIST? (Satis Shroff)

How could I further exist

Without the Basmati rice from the Ganges delta,

The garam masala from Punjab,

The olive oil from Liguria,

The Mountain cheese from Austria,

The Bauernbrot from the Schwarzwald

And the limoncello from Sirmione?

How could I live any more

Without the novels of Dickens, Hardy, Goethe,

The poems of Schiller, Poe, Rilke,

Wordsworth, Yeats, Burns and Keats,

Sonnets of Shakespeare?

How could I live

Without having seen the majestic Himalayas, Alps and Dolomites,

Felt the biting winds of the North Sea in winter,

The solace of the Atlantic Ocean in summer,

Or without having experienced the wrath of the Monsoon rain,

Or the reassuring warmth of the sun,

Which creates great wines in Ihringen and Freiburg?

How could I exist without having experienced the angst of imminent war

Against the teeming Chinese army in Sikkim,

The war against West and East Pakistan

And the birth of Bangladesh,

The British Gurkhas in the Falklands,

The victims of Sebrenica,

And Russians in Crimea.

How could I exist

Without having drunk beer with Nepalese, German and Czech students in Prague,

Eaten Schollen with Italian friends in Chioggia,

Pasta in Giacomo's Spaghetteria near Brescia,

Crimean sekt in Freiburg with Alemannic women,

Salad with Aceto balsamico from Modena.

How could I exist

Without seeing the poppies gow in Flanders,

The green grass in the Normandy,

French children with wide eyes in La Rochelle as a trawler chugs to the harbour.

There are no quarrels between the former foes.

How could I exist in Europe

Without witnessing the sea dead of Lampedusa?

Men and women huddled, tossed and turned

In rickety African fisherboats,

Gone to rough sea with hope of a better life in the fortress that is Europe.

This is the sad tenor of humanity,

Where no bed awaits the travel-sore, weak and poor in the northern hemisphere.

This is the turbid ebb and flow

Of haves and have-nots.

* * *

UPROOTED & BANISHED (Satis Shroff)

A Banat Swabian poetess

Was born in 1953

In a hamlet called Nitzkydorf,

Which lies in Romania.

She came to Berlin in 1987.

Wrote verses to mete out justice

To the fate of German Romanians,

Who were departed to work camps.

The other way round.

Jews died in concentration camps,

80,000 ethnic Germans from Romania,

Uprooted and banished,

Suffered hunger and death

In the Ukranian camps.

Survival strategies and dreams

At the end of the Second World War.

If Bertold Brecht’s Furcht und Elend

Im Dritten Reich

Told us about the Nazi terror,

Hertha’s verses and prose reveal

The sadness and angst of her lost people.

In a small hamlet in Banat,

Small Herta tells us

In her hard, Banat-German accent,

How hostile her home environment was.

She speaks of her doubts and fears,

For it is plain to see:

She’s made of another genetic material

That made her vulnerable to her environs,

Like underdogs everywhere in this world.

How unbearable for Romanians,

The Banat-Germans had their own

Culture, tradition

And way of life.

But pray, don’t ethnic Germans say

The same things about migrants

Eking out a living here?

Hertha speaks a poetic language

Of a gone but not lost past,

Of the misery, angst and terror

Felt by her people.

Her books emphasise

The cruel, inhuman face of communism,

Under Nicolae Ceausescu.

A chronist walking

Along the thin line,

Between poetry and terror,

Where every line is a cry

Against injustice

With pregnant titles:

The Fox Was even Then a Hunter (1992),

Herztier (1994),

In the Hair-knots Lives a Lady,

The King (Ceausescu) Bows and Kills (2000)

The Pale Gentleman and the Mocca Cups (2005).

Herta said:

‘My innermost desire is to write

I can live with it.’

Her literary style is precise,

Laconic and matter-of-fact.

Despite her publications,

Ms. Müller was a nobody.

Without her notes on Oskar Pastiors

She couldn’t have penned ‘Atemschaukel.’

It became more than a swing of breath.

She was shadowed, interrogated and persecuted.

Günter Grass said:

‘I’m very satisfied with the Literature Prize

For Herta from Stockholm.’

Karasek quipped:

‘My mantra is always for Philip Roth,’

And sounded like: ‘My Heart Belongs to Daddy.’

Germany’s literary pope

Marcel Reich-Ranicki:

‘I plead for Roth and wish to say

No more.’

Literary critics form the USA commented:

‘We suggest Philip Roth, Thomas Pynchon,

Joyce Carol Oates

Or Bob Dylan.’

The Swedish Academy gave the prize

For the fourteenth time

To Germany.

Poor Romania

* * *

(Rübenzahl: Schlesian fairytale figure)

Schlesien, My Forgotten Heimat (Satis Shroff)

Blue hills; green valleys

In the middle a small house,

So wonderful this piece of earth,

That´s where I´m at home.

This old Heimat song from Schlesien was painted and hung on the stairs of Frau Ana Podolski in Kappel by her dear husband when I visited her. We´d had a chat outside her house where her late husband had done a mural on the side wall of the house. When you drive or walk to Kappel you can´t miss it: a big painting depicting a giant called the Rübenzahl, holding a carrot and near his feet is an old Schlesien town with its church. In the distance you can discern the Schneekoppe, which is a 1603m high mountain.

Ana said, ´It is a German mountain with alpine character. Below the peak you can see a Wetterwarte, a small building to forcast the weather.´

Frau Ana Podolski was born in Hiddensee, Agnetendorf, and has gone through her share of separation from her old home during the war years, and has now found a place she call home in Kappel. But the longing (sehnsucht) remains. Rübezahl is a giant from the Riesengebirge, a mountain spirit, and is the name of a person and place since the 13th century. It might be noted that there are 13 Rübezahl stories in the Daemonologia Rubenlii Silesii published in 1622 by Johannes Praetorius in 1662. Rübenzagel is the name used in Schlesien like the words: zahl, zoal, zeul even today.

Ana said, ´In Norway they have a spirit called the Troll and in Schlesien we had our Rübezahl, who is not only a Berggeist but also a magic word. The spirit helps the poor.´ Her home is filled with memories of Schlesien. I asked Ana to tell me something about her late husband because he seemed to be omnipresent in the house. He´d constructed and painted a lot of beautiful and useful things which were on display.

She smiled and said, ´My husband was a painter but he also indulged in artistry. He could repair a lot of things. We had leave Schlesien in 1945 because Germany had lost the war that began in 1939 and lasted till 1945. We also lost the territory till the Gorlitz-Neisse line. We were evacuated to north Germany. The winter months of 1944-45 were extremely cold and snowy, and many people migrated to the USA and Canada. What followed was injustice towards us Germans.´

It was on Juli 14, 1945 between 6 to 9am that the evacuation of Germans began. The German population was brought to the area west of the river Neisse. Every German was allowed to carry a maximum of 20 kilos of luggage. Transports like wagons, oxen, horses, cows were not allowed. The entire living and inanimate objects had to be left behind and became the property of the Polish government. Hirschberg became Yelemagora and Breslau was given the Polish name of Wronlaw.

We had to travel from Pommern, East Prussia across the east sea to Schleswig-Holstein because the Russians were coming. The people in the east part of Schlesien were trying to flee the onslaught of the Russians. The German radio spoke of a wunderwaffe that Hitler´s Luftwaffe was working on, but the living conditions declined with the passage of each day. Towards the end of January we were kept awake by the artillery fire. The front was coming closer to the Bunzlau, Liegnitz and Breslau, some 50 km north of Hirschberg. Even old men had orders to fire at the enemy with the panzerfaust (bazookas) to save the Vaterland.

A lot of people died in the East Sea and everything was confiscated by the Russian soldiers. We had to remain. My father died on February 1, 1943 in the home military hospital. That was also the day when Stalingrad fell and lots of German soldiers were missing. The Russians had won the battle.

My husband was a prisoner of war (p.o.w.) and had to construct bridges, work in the mines and elsewhere. He always sent his mother letters, who later had to flee from where she lived near Breslau.

Before he came home, my husband used to construct useful things with wood and the Russians discovered that he had talent so they took him to the Kremlin as a carpenter. He was six years in Russia and he worked for Russians officers to help build their houses and dachas.

Ana said, ´In order to avoid assassination, Stalin had three identical limousines with security-men. My husband was wounded on the left leg and that was why he was discharged from the p.o.w. camp.

After he was released, he returned to his mother, and that was when I got to know him better and fell in love with him,´ she said with a twinkle in her eyes as we sat in her living room.

He got a job as a painter in the town council of Rerenau (Amt Oberkirchen). It´s called Auetal now. We had a lot of agriculture in those days an in the Ruhr area everything was destroyed. You know, we were evacuated and weren´t refugees,´ said Ana emphatically.

Ana Podolski folded her hands, which looked frail like parchment, the blue veins were distinctly visible on the backs of her fair, pigmented hands, as she said, ´We had no choice but to leave the country in the years 1946-47. This was a decision made by the USA and the Soviet Union with the signatures of the former enemy nations: Great Britain and France. We had the Russian East Zone, the British and US West Zones and the French Zone. The love for our dear hamlet and the whole of Schlesien has not been minimised, even though we were forced to leave our beloved land. We Schlesiens meet every two years in our old Heimat, and even the younger generations share our sense of loss of Heimat and the pain that goes with it.´

Ana went further to say, ´I still think it´s important to tell people in the west about our odyssey from Schlesien. I have the impression the people still don´t know what happened to us in those days.´

It might be mentioned that Krommenau is an old settlement and was mentioned in 1305 in the bishop district circa Hyrsberc (Hirschberg) as the hamlet ´Crupow.´ There was a coal mine, a small tavern with fishery and a place for breakfast, complete with a tree, under the shade of which the travellers could tie their horses. There was a nickel-mine in the year 1373 on the Czeis hills. You can read about it in the city library of Breslau. As time went by, the name of Crupow was changed to Cromnow, then Krummenau, and in the end Krommenau. A rivulet called Krummseiffen flowed through the hamlet. It was three km long before it became a tributary of the Altkemnitz. There was an elevation called Nebelberg, which means ´Misty Mountain´ (698m). The founders of this settlement were 20 families where agriculture was the main occupation. According to a certificate book, in the year 1576 Krommenau had 25 farmers. The main religion (90%) was evangelism. During the 30 Year War (1618-1648) the Christians had a tough time because in 1637 the Lutherian faith was forbidden, and as a result 578 evangelist churches were closed.

The entire country was destroyed and was in penury. When the King of Prussia Friedrich II took over Schlesien in 1714, he declared freedom of religion for all. A big church was built but was misused by the Poles as a store-room for hay, straw and cereals. The windows were closed with nailed planks.

I asked her how she and her husband had landed in Kappel and not in north Germany.

Ana said, ´ A cousin of my husband met a colleague from the Black Forest and she married him and settled down in Lenzkirch. My husband got a job at Knosp in the Moltke street. I was 14 years old when the World War II began and now I´m 70.´

* * *

Schwarzwald Chronicles (Satis Shroff)

FREIBURG: History of Migration from 1500 till Today (Satis Shroff)

MIGRATION STORY IN FREIBURG (Satis Shroff)

Commentary: President Obama: WE WERE ONCE STRANGERS TOO (Satis Shroff)

Singing Kindergarten & Kappeler Men's Choir (Satis Shroff)

VOLKSTRAUERTAG: The Fallen, Dead & Lampedusa Refugees (Satis Shroff)

Abiturlektur: HALF BROKE HORSES (Satis Shroff)

Schwarzwaldlyrik: Ode to the Black Forest (Satis Shroff)

Auf ein Lied mit Satis Shroff

Photoessay: IMPRESSIONS FROM AMSTERDAM (Satis Shroff)

Transition Michael Stotz, a dear friend and singer from the Men's Choir-Kappel (Satis Shroff)

Medical Ethnology World Congress: Shamanism in the Modern World (Satis Shroff)

Savvy Shamanism in the Modern World? (Satis Shroff)

Weltkongress der Ganzheitsmedizin 15-17. Mai 2015

DIE SCHAMANISCHE REISE

SCHMERZFREI UND BEWEGLICH – EIN LEBEN LANG

LEAKEY´S PLACE - DAS WIRKEN DER LUO-HEILER AUS OSTAFRIKA

DAS ERBE DER ZIRKUMPOLAREN PALÄOLITHISCHEN HEILKUNDE

TRANSFORMATION UND HEILUNG - SCHAMANISMUS UND HEILKRÄFTE DER MEISTER AUS PERU

DIE NATUR DES SCHAMANISMUS

WILLKOMMEN IN MÜNCHEN

OPEN HEALER FORUM - INTERKULTURELLER UND INTERDISZIPLINÄRER AUSTAUSCH

Neu: Therapeuten-Fortbildung Ethnomedizin

DIE WEISHEIT DES HEILENS – VON DER ETHNOMEDIZIN ZUR GANZHEITSMEDIZIN

INFOMED INSTITUT FÜR GANZHEITSMEDIZIN E.V.

>>> AUSSTELLER <<<

>>> PARTNER NEWS - EMPFEHLUNGEN <<<

Zeitgeistlyrik: Angst and Anger Spreads in Europe (Satis Shroff)

Satis Shroff's CATMANDU-LITERARY-CAFE

Monsoon Landslides in Sunkosi Nepal (Satis Shroff)

Forgotten Refugees Reach the American Shangri La (Satis Shroff)

Satis Shroff, Freiburg: WALK, READ, WRITE, SING, SMILE

Prosepoem: A Minstrel's Songs of Love and Sorrow (Satis Shroff)

Satis Shroff Grußwort

Ethnomedicine: HOLISTIC NATURE OF HEALTH & HEALING (Satis Shroff)

Ethnomedicine: HOLISTIC HEALING (Satis Shroff)

Subtitle: Call for Papers! http://www.labforculture.org/pl/users/site-users/site-members/satis-shroff/76717/128711

Der Weltkongress der Ganzheitsmedizin 15.-17. Mai 2015

Das Buchprojekt 2015:

Call for Papers bis 31.10.2014

Llamada para sumisión de articulos hasta el 31 Octubre del 2014

INFOMED INSTITUT FÜR GANZHEITSMEDIZIN E.V.

NEPAL UNITES - GERMANY: Interview with Nepali of the week: Satis Shroff (L...

Welcome to the Town of Gässle & Bächle (Satis Shroff)

Ukraine Commentary: Secret Funerals & Motherly Measures (Satis Shroff)

Satis Shroff: A WRITER'S JOURNEY

Satis Shroff

Writing style and technique

Social Engagement

Bibliography:

Zeitgeistlyrik: Rituals in the Himalayas

Rembering the Past: Le Grande Guerre (Satis Shroff)

* * *

My friends wrote to me on my 80th birthday:‘Mr. H.,Are you back from Syrakus?’Back from my escapade.I felt like Plato,Who was disappointed by Dionysios II.My disappointment was much biggerThan that of Plato,Because the tyrant and his victim,Were not beyond the seas,But in my own country.

To the Nazis I became suddenlyA suspected person,

Who needed to be shadowed

UPROOTED & BANISHED (Satis Shroff)

A Banat Swabian poetess

Was born in 1953

Schlesien, My Forgotten Heimat (Satis Shroff)

To the Nazis I became suddenly
A suspected person,